Thousands of San Franciscans, including many students, descended upon Dolores Park on Friday afternoon to join the “ICE Out” walkouts taking place in dozens of cities across the country today.
Friday’s “National Day of Action” was organized as a response to the immigration crackdown in Minnesota and the protests that have ensued since Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, were killed by federal agents.
The crowd in Dolores Park held signs reading “Defend Democracy: It’s time for a general strike!” and “ICE OUT!” They waved American, Palestinian and Mexican flags, and began arriving at the park in numbers after 1 p.m.
Students walked out of schools across the city, including at George Washington High School in the Richmond District, to join the protest, carrying signs and hollering. “Let’s get it moving, people!” one shouted, directing classmates.
Santiago Flores Knapp, 16, and Luca Ionescu-Zanetti, 16, took the train to San Francisco today after attending their morning classes at Berkeley High School.
“This a personal thing for me in the community,” said Flores Knapp, who has friends who are directly impacted by federal immigration policies.
Ionescu-Zanetti was particularly concerned about federal agents masking their identities. “There’s a lot of obscurities about ICE agents keeping their identities anonymous … when you’re not being clear with the public it can be a violation of freedom to protest and speech,” said the high school junior.
Gael Garcia Solano, 18, is a student at University High in Pacific Heights. He and about 30 of his classmates walked out of class earlier today. “Myself, as an immigrant, I’ve been discriminated [against] a lot, especially in San Francisco, which is kind of surprising,” he said. “But I want to fight for our people who are being abused by and overpowered by ICE agents.” Solano said this was his first protest.
Organizers said they are hoping to replicate the success of a “general strike” that took place on Jan. 23 in Minneapolis, when hundreds of businesses shut down and thousands of people filled the streets to lambaste Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The group 50501 said that marches were planned coast to coast, and students at the University of Minnesota called for academic walkouts. In San Francisco, at least 70 businesses said they would close.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder was in attendance at the rally. “I’m just so heartened, every single square of this park that I can see is covered with people,” Fielder said. “Should [federal agents] become unpredictable, there will be a massive response.”
Street signs surrounding the park were covered with stickers reading “ABOLISH ICE” and “FUCK ICE.”
At one point during the rally, about a dozen young people gathered in a dance circle while some played the drums.
Eliana Roque, one of the young dancers, said they were from a local Brazilian carnival dance and percussion group. Rorque, who is 17, is a sophomore at a Bay Area high school. “My mom was born and raised on 24th and Florida, so I’m a Mission girl,” she said, adding that walking out of her classes today was “empowering.”
“We have to care and fight for each other,” she said. “This is all of our land. This is for our people.”
Mission artists Ali Blum and her husband Calixto Robles were at Dolores Park slinging screen-printed posters. “As community artists we have to help the movement especially of young people because they are the seeds of the future,” Robles said in Spanish.
One of the posters was designed by the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, a student at San Jose State. It read: “Immigration built this nation.”
Cat Carr, 69, had a picket sign that read “Super Callous Fragile Racist Sexist Fascist POTUS,” an ode to Mary Poppins.
“It just seems very inappropriate to me to bring those poorly trained pseudo-law enforcement in like hostile soldiers,” said Carr.
For Juliet Stroble Lacour, 12, and their mother Mina Lacour, today’s protest was a family affair. They took off middle school and work respectively to show out in solidarity with their community. The younger Lacour said their favorite part of the protest was seeing the person on stilts dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.
Their plan after the protest is to go to their favorite immigrant-owned Mexican restaurant on Mission St. “I love the idea of not spending money, but I also want to support our local businesses,” said Mina.
Protesters left Dolores Park by 3:30 p.m. and headed to City Hall, where they congregated and continued the rally.
Could you do more reporting on the families left behind when the primary earner, often the man in the family, is detained and deported? How does the family manage finically? Are they able to keep their housing? What kind of assistance is available?
“the man in the family, is detained and deported?”
For example, one gainfully employed man was deported who had 5 young children that became taxpayer burdens as welfare recipients until age 18. He died in the desert trying to get back to them.
Really great to see that apparently 4/5 of the people there were youth from Mission High, Horace Mann, Everett and other schools.
Someone needs to teach the organizers how to tune a PA for a woman’s voice. The first women parliamentarians in Germany figured this out in the 1980s.
Gestapo will eventually face the apolitical justice dpt…just be patient..day of the reckoning…let’s play”Spot a FED in the park” today.