OAKLAND – Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday night in East Oakland to protest escalating immigration enforcement efforts across the state as well as the Trump administration’s recent deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles.
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“We are concerned that what happened in LA is going to happen here,” said Pastor Todd Benson, executive director of Faith in Action East Bay, which helped organize the interfaith vigil at Fruitvale Plaza.
Benson was referring to the Trump administration’s mobilization of troops amid large demonstrations that have broken out in protest of immigration enforcement efforts.
“There’s no need to call up the National Guard or the Marines,” Benson said. “He (President Donald Trump) is doing this because he thinks it benefits him, but it harms so many people.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit to overturn Trump’s order federalizing National Guard troops. On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order and instead set a hearing for Thursday.
In a speech at the vigil, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said the city is working with its emergency response teams to ensure people’s right to peacefully protest is protected. She also said the city “remains committed to protecting our immigrant neighbors.”
“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” Lee said.
Oakland resident Jovanna Diaz cited her father as the reason for attending the vigil. He was deported in 2006 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided his workplace, Diaz said, adding that he died in Mexico before she could see him again.
“These are things that are not thought about when they break families,” Diaz said of ICE. “I just want to make my dad proud and use my voice for him and for all of our people.”
