Demonstration calls for end to detention
A dinner table with empty plates and cups, with no one sitting, sat atop the steps outside the Humboldt County courthouse in Eureka as part of an installation calling for the abolishment of immigrant detention centers and create awareness of family separation.
Immigrant advocacy group Centro Del Pueblo set the installation on Thanksgiving morning. While the plates and cups were not filled with food or drink, they contained messages detailing some of the treatment immigrants face in these facilities and high costs in operating them.
“Today is Thanksgiving Day, which is a pretty big deal, but not all families are together and can’t share a dinner today, or any other day, so today is a very meaningful day for people living here, legal (immigration status) or not,” said group member Denise Hernandez.
Centro del Pueblo community organizer member Karen Villa said the day offers a day to reflect on the difficulties facing many in and outside of our community which many do not even think about.
“I think that today’s is a special day in which we need to reflect about what we have and our privileges that we have, as we’re going to have dinner with our families and realize that a lot of the families don’t have that opportunity,” she said. “Folks have been detained in detention centers, in what is really a jail specific for our immigrant population.”
She points out there is a disconnect between some of the discourse on the legality surrounding immigration and the urgent need of many who have to undergo such a process.
“They say this because they haven’t gone through the process. They don’t realize that when you are going through this process, there is a tax on you. … There is a lot of trauma,” Villa said.
Humboldt State student and Centro del Pueblo member Kathy Zamora came to support the event. She says she feels supported at the group’s activities.
“It’s a safe space for everyone,” Zamora said, accompanied by her family who was visiting for the Thanksgiving break.
As part of their presence at the courthouse, group members also held signs and distributed bags with COVID-19 facial covers, notebooks, informational pamphlets, canned food items and
other useful resources for immigrants and other supporters.
The literature inside the bag of goods included information on how to locate a person, or how they can be located by others in case of an encounter with immigration officials.
“When you encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it’s something that, a lot of the time, can induce panic. So being able to have these resources and being equipped with information on your rights and being able to understand that is important,” Villa said.
“These are so you can learn about them and use them, so that they don’t just exist in a document,” Hernandez said.