About their departure

by Ace Tafoya/PNN

In the early waking hours of a crisp May sunshine in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco, United State Federal Officials stormed and raided the Hotel Sunrise on Valencia Street this year. Looking for a "deportee", the agents terrorized and scared residents just getting ready for a days work. When all was said and done, the representatives from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, formally INS), had coiled up seven Mexican Nationals and two East Indians. This story was virtually ignored in the daily presses. But it happened, and it’s continuing to happen, here and across this so-called "free country."

On Tuesday, July 27, the midst of the financial district was turned upside down
when a protest march and rally disrupted dozens having lunch in the outdoor breezes.
About a hundred people from The St. Peter’s Housing Committee, La Raza Centro Legal, SF Day Labor Program, Heads Up Collective and other local foundations treaded towards government land to speak up and speak out against these current seizes.

"We are here to call for the raids to stop," demanded Juana Flores from the Mujeres Unidas y Activas organization. "We want them to stop nationally, we want them to stop here in our state, and we want to make sure they stop raiding our brothers, our sisters and our companions!"

On daily radio stations throughout this country they tell of the Democratic National Convention, missing women in Utah and a husband on trail for killing his wife and unborn child. With all due respect, why are the missing ones all white on television and the radio news? Why don’t we hear about what’s happening in the inner cities? Why don’t we hear of things like this?

"I stand here to charge them (the ICE) with these crimes," Sunaina Maira of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action voiced. We were spellbound as she told about an immigrant man being locked up for six weeks – for no reason. "We are not the ones who are guilty. They are the ones who are guilty of terrorizing our communities!"

Denizens dressed in suits, street length dresses and mini skirts adjusted and fumbled their cell phones to tell their friends what the ruckus was about during their afternoon break.

When explaining a connection between globalization and immigrant issues, Marisol Ocampo from St. Peter’s Housing Committee said, "We work degrading jobs…We’re exploited at our jobs everyday…We have to live in secret, in clandestine situations because we don’t have a right to papers."

At the rally outside 630 Sansome, we heard issues regarding how the raids have impacted the Day Labor Program and how the immigrant community as a whole have been impacted. And we heard a heartbreaking story of a mother with a young son, who’s a citizen of this country, are being deported. "We have 14 days to rent our house, get our belongings together," Veronica Orozco cried through translation about their departure. "My son doesn’t even speak Spanish properly…We’re gonna have to go to Mexico and start our lives over again."

"We unequivocally demand immediately that you (the ICE) stop the raids in San Francisco," yelled Renee Saucedo, a candidate for Supervisor in District 9. Miss Saucedo had just met with the ICE moments before. "The community demands that they do not collaborate with other law enforcement agencies including the San Francisco Police Department, the FBI and other federal law enforcement."

The ball is in their court now, what will they do is anyone’s guess. As others voiced their concerns that echoed off the Immigrant’s Attorney Offices from across the street, I thought of my Grandmother Tona, an immigrant from Mexico, and wondered if she ever had to go through trouble like this in her life, like these people are now?