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In response to two Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in East Palo Alto on Monday, a small group of demonstrators gathered for an “emergency protest” at Courthouse Square in Redwood City Tuesday evening.
The local activist group behind the event, The Wolves, is based in Menlo Park and centers itself on the platform that democracy has been hijacked by “the billionaire class” and seeks to fight back using “peaceful, non-violent protest.”
“People are disappearing off the streets,” Wolves organizer Scott Herscher told the Pulse. “It’s happening really close, not a million states away, not a million miles away.”
Seeing as nearly a third of Redwood City is foreign-born, and 36% of the city is Latino, Herscher said The Wolves chose to protest in Redwood City because of “the immediate threat that ICE poses there.”
Marching from Courthouse Square to El Camino Real and Jefferson Avenue, they said they felt there were busy spaces with good exposure to drivers and pedestrians who might not have heard about the arrests that they consider to be “fiercely fascist.”
Attendees included Karina Romero, 48, a former U.S. Marine born in Mexico who currently works for the U.S. Postal Service.
“I did everything I was supposed to do,” Romero said, through tears. “And all of a sudden they want to send us back?”
The veteran, who clarified that her protest is “not anti-America,” lives in Redwood City with her wife, where she said she feels much safer than she did when she grew up in Arizona.
Another female demonstrator in her forties, who requested to remain anonymous, grew up in the Soviet Union and said, “these times feel strangely familiar.”
“If you’ve never lived in a totalitarian society,” the forty-something explained, “you don’t think it’s possible — and don’t see the signs until it’s too late.”
Monday’s targeted ICE arrests took place in front of the people’s homes, and involved a Stanford Hospital visit after one person they arrested had a “medical emergency,” the San Mateo County Rapid Response Network reported.
East Palo Alto Police Department Chief Jeff Liu was unaware of why ICE was in the area on Monday morning and didn’t know about the arrests until later.
“We do not work with ICE,” he told the Palo Alto Online.
On Tuesday, the East Palo Alto woman who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement remained at Stanford Hospital after suffering a medical emergency during her arrest, sparking concerns from local advocates and officials.
About a dozen people showed up at the hospital late Monday afternoon in support of the woman, who they said was denied visitation with family.
Redwood City has had no known ICE arrests. However, a video recorded near Cedar Street and Hilton Street on July 1 appeared to show law enforcement-like figures detaining someone in broad daylight. Immigrant advocates said the video has not been verified and may not show federal agents.
Redwood City Mayor Elmer Martínez Saballos, in a statement, said the Redwood City Police Department was not involved in the activity shown in the video, and “our local officers do not participate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws or conduct sweeps looking for undocumented individuals.”
The local presence of immigration agents comes at a time when California medical staff are grappling with how to deal with federal law enforcement inside hospitals. As Calmatters reported this week, immigration attorneys and advocates have been increasingly concerned about uncertain protocols, conflicting messages and potential threats to patients’ legal and privacy rights.
