Protesters in San Luis rally against family separation
Speeches from Rep. Fernandez, Supervisor Porchas follow march
Chants of “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here!”could be heard along the Border Patrol entry point in San Luis, Ariz., as demonstrators gathered for the reunification of families on Saturday morning.
Roughly over 100 people from Yuma County rallied and marched in an act of resistance against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Like those who took part in the marches across the United States, protesters in San Luis were spurred to action by the accounts of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Organizers of the march and rally included citizens from Yuma County such as students, people of various professions, parents, grandparents and people of different ages.
According to the Associated Press, Trump has backed away from family separations amid bipartisan and international uproar. An AP report states that his “zero tolerance policy” led officials to take more than 2,000 children from their parents as they tried to enter the country illegally, many of them fleeing violence, persecution or economic collapse in their home countries.
Those joining Saturday’s demonstration called for the government to reunite families that were already separated. Participants marched under the banner “Families Belong Together,” which is a coalition of Americans who oppose the mistreatment of all immigrants by the current administration and past administrations, the Familiesbelong.org website shows.
Signs could be seen at the march that read “We Should All Care,” and “Reunite Families Now.”
At the start of the event, participants met at 9 a.m. at the Cesar Chavez Community Center in Joe Orduno Park and together marched to the U.S. port of entry. Following the march, participants returned to the center to hear speeches and remarks by Yuma County Supervisor for District 1 Martin Porchas, State Representative Charlene Fernandez, candidate for Wellton City Council Alex Bejarano, eleven-year-old
schoolgirl Regina Castaños and others.
“When my parents were farmworkers we used to drive from California every summer,” Porchas said. “Every time that my mom would drop me off at day care I would cry. Now I can imagine what those kids are going through right now when their parents are being taken away one direction and the kids to another direction. That is just injustice. That is not American. This is not who we are.”
Bejarano spoke of his mother who was an immigrant.
“When my grandmother left Mexico to the United States she was 33-years-old and she left because she needed a better life,” Bejarano said. “She came here right across the border to San Luis where she met my grandfather who immigrated to the United States in the sixties. And my grandmother was not a rapist and she was not a killer. She was a community builder who worked hard all her life to afford us the opportunities that we have today.”
Bejanarno’s grandmother passed away in 2014, he said, but not before imparting life lessons, he added.
“The lessons that we learned from her-all of my family learned from her were lessons of love, were lessons of compassion, were lessons of hard work, were lessons of nurturing and just being there for people even though they are not related to you and that is what I see here today,” he said.
Youth speaker for the day Castaños addressed the crowd in both English and Spanish, noting that if she “was one of the children that had been separated” she would have been very scared and sad.
“I would not want any child to go through that, but since that already happened I would like children to be able to go back to their families because they did nothing wrong to deserve to be separated,” she said.
As Fernandez spoke of the rally she recounted recent events concerning the children that are being processed.
“The fact of the matter is I sat in a courtroom yesterday and the Friday before that I sat in a courtroom and I watched children being processed,” she said. “I saw children sit before the judge in a chair and their little feet didn’t even reach the floor.”
Fernandez recounted that the judge was kind and asked a seven-year-old girl where her native land was to which she replied Guatemala through an interpreter. Then, Fernandez said the girl was asked if anyone would do her harm if she were to return to Guatemala to which she replied no.
“Seven-years-old,” Fernandez repeated. “What does she know about anyone wanting to do her any harm?
The girl was also asked if she wanted to see her parents, to which she replied yes, Fernandez said. The state representative then recounted that after some paperwork a flight would be arranged for the girl to return to Guatemala.
“This went on and on,” Fernandez recalled. “Finally, a young man sat in the chair and was asked the same questions.”
This time, however, Fernandez noted that the young man replied yes, that there is someone wanting to do him harm in his native land and no, he did not want to go back. The judge said “We are going to wait and deal with this one in a couple of weeks and get an attorney for you and get a child advocate for you,” Fernandez recounted.
“I wanted to stand up and cheer for this kid,” Fernandez said. “I wanted to raise my fist and say ‘Right on, right on because you know your parents sent you here for a reason. You came across that desert for a reason. Someone is going to do you harm. Your mom was protecting you, your mom may not be in Guatemala.’ She may be somewhere else — we don’t know but it was amazing what this young man did.”
According to Fernandez, about five or six children will be flying back while many were given a court date for sometime in 2019.
“It absolutely broke my heart,” Fernadez said. “They sat on the benches alongside of myself and a couple of my colleagues and I noticed the look on their faces — they weren’t like kids with a happy (life). Their eyes seemed vacant. What was strange was they didn’t talk with each other. They didn’t giggle, they didn’t laugh, they didn’t wave, they didn’t smile, they didn’t cry and that worried me a little bit.
“Those are the facts because I saw it with my own eyes,” she added.