Pro-immigrant activists prevented from testifying

Early on the morning of July 5 a large group of pro-immigrant activists gathered at the entrance to the Border Patrol Station in Imperial Beach, the southernmost coastal community in California. They were outside because they were prohibited from participating in the Republican-sponsored congressional hearing going on inside, the first of many to be held across the country this summer.

San Diego, July 5. Photo: Claudio Roberto S. Almeida

These meetings, whose real purpose is to generate mass fear of and hostility toward immigrants, are sounding boards for the most racist politicians and their allies. At this event, no opposition voices of any sort were permitted, and the official list of speakers included the chief of the San Diego Bor der Patrol sector; the head of the Bor der Patrol union; the San Diego County and Los Angeles County sheriffs; Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, a notorious local immigrant basher; and Andy Ramírez, leader of one of the paramilitary groups that has been threatening border crossers across the Southwest.

WW photo: Bob McCubbin

The protesters outside included many faith leaders from all over southern California, who came to show their support for the immigrant community. Rev. Art Cribbs, the progressive pastor of the San Diego Christian Fellowship Con gre gational Church, was there along with leaders from various other Chris tian communities, and from the Cath olic, Jewish, Muslim, Quaker, Indig enous, and Korean communities as well. Representing the activist community were, among others, the Raza Rights Coalition and the Interna tional Action Center. The Border Angels group displayed hundreds and hundreds of wooden crosses to represent the estimated 4,000 border crossers who have died since the imposition of Operation Gatekeeper, a U.S. government escalation in border militarization that has, since 1994, forced border crossers eastward into hazardous mountain and desert regions.

Edgar Hopida from the Coun cil on American Islamic Relations addres sed the protesters, connecting the struggle of Muslims following 9/11 with that of immigrants. “Muslims and immigrants are not terrorists,” he said to the cheering crowd.

Responding to the attacks of the racist capitalist system, the differences among the various religious denominations at this event seemed minor. The need for justice has united them. The spirits of the people gathered outside this station of imperialist aggression were high as they chanted and sang together, showing their solidarity and commitment to fight for full human rights for all immigrants.