The messages were as loud as they were urgent.
“Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” the crowd of about 100 people chanted in front of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse in downtown San Diego on Thursday.
Members of several unions, along with elected leaders, sounded an alarm over the deployment of National Guard troops and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into communities.
They also voiced concern that the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, like freedom of speech, are under serious threat.
“And at the moment that the executive branch begins attacking people for what they said at a popular show on TV or an editorial they've written for a newspaper and are sent to prison or a detention center because of that, that means we're on a slippery slope to losing the fundamental principles of what a democracy means for us,” said Pedro Rios, director of the local branch of the American Friends Service Committee.
But San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said it’s even more than that.
“It's over and over again where rule of law, the Constitution, due process, basic rights, like a right to health care, basic food assistance. It's all being taken away in order to give tax cuts to billionaires. And if we don't come together as a community to fight back, we're going to wake up tomorrow and there's not going to be anything left,” she said.
Several motorists honked in support as they drove by. But some may ask how much change can really come from a protest held for an hour or so in downtown San Diego?
Rios had an answer. He said the message is picked up by passers by, who might want to join the protest..
“And for people that are living in fear, it's important for them to hear and to see that people are willing to stick their necks out during a political climate that's extremely dangerous for people to do so,” he said.
Thursday's protest was not a one-off. Organizers said they’re going to be back in front of the courthouse every Thursday with the same message, for people to get involved in what they called the fight for survival of this democracy.
