EXTRA CREDIT: Shut Down ICE

This weekend I left LA on Friday afternoon to go to Arizona for the Not One More Deportation Conference that would lead up to a civil disobedience action on Monday. This weekend opened up a wound I didn't know I had because immigrant communities are struggling in many ways, lack of access to health care/ education/ jobs, being separated from family and having to live in fear. Arizona is the worst when you're an immigrant and a person of color too.

People from all over California met at CARECEN which stands for Central American Resource Center where we went over "Know your Rights" information. I get anxious when going on long car rides and I'm kind of understanding that its because I don't have control of the car and it makes me feel helpless to be moving without having control of it so I was feeling nervous about the car ride. What was suppose to be a 5 hour car ride sadly turned to a 12 HOUR car ride because we were 3 vans that had to stay together AND avoid checkpoints so went up California to the top of Arizona and then back down to Phoenix, I was so mad and sad that these are the precautions we had to take to avoid the worst.

It was 6am Saturday and we had 2 more hours of sleep before we had to get to the conference and at that point I was regretting being there because I was tired and grumpy. Slowly letting everything sink in, I realize that the conference was successful in bringing in many people of different ages because often the immigrant face is dominated by youth. It was amazing to see moms, señoras/es, babies and youth all in one place sharing different narratives but all emphasizing that we are fighting for more than immigration reform but immigrant rights. Some friends and I even got to connect with other UC students to continue to strategize around the appointment of Napolitano (which is a whole other issue) and plan strategic steps to organize students to care about the issue and take action.







Monday things were suppose to go a certain way but plans change quickly. A number of people were suppose to chain themselves (using U-locks around there necks) to the gates of the ICE Detention Center. If deportations are not being stopped then we will directly stop them ourselves. We marched to the Detention center and had a lot of art and music outside. We were seriously having a party outside of the ICE Detention Center dancing to Selena,

 and music you usually here at Quinceñeras. La Santa Cecilia was also there and everyone was having fun dancing, painting and laughing at all the anti-immigrants across the street. (I think the police maybe wanted to dance too but they were "doing there job" looking tough and mean at us)  Civil disobedience did not end up happening because the ICE Detention Center ended up closing down before we even go there so it was a win for all of us. Racist laws still exist, in Arizona it is "legal" to get stopped and asked for papers. What does an "illegal" immigrant look like?

Reading from "They Called them Greasers" I made a lot of connections to our immigration laws today. The lone rangers were given this authority to control "the uncivilized" just like la migra, police, border patrol can have the "authority to ask for papers/documentation and put innocent people in deportation proceedings. (not to mention all the violence that happens at the border.

Taking this class and understanding my own feelings towards the border and what it means to me has definately added on to a long experience of questioning and identity issues and especially fear of things that can happen to me or my family. To me the border is one of the scariest things, during a MEChA nationals in San Diego my heart was feeling very uneasy and even driving to Arizona I could not stop thinking of the many that live in Arizona everyday. The border to me is not just a physical seperation but an emotional one where my family is at the other side and where a lot of violence took place. My grandma has crossed the border many times, one time coming back to the U.S for her second time when her daughter was dying of cancer and she was caught and beaten twice. Abuelita I miss you everyday, and to the family I haven't met yet I long to meet you and reunite without fears of being told we can't come back to the other side once leaving it, without fearing that what we've worked for is gone. The border is an area that just brings chills of fear and longing to understand what home is to me.

p.s. watch Santa Cecilia's video ICE it hits a nerve because it is real life.