From a World Can’t Wait organizer in Los Angeles:
As part of the West Coast Drive Out the Bush Regime Bus Tour,
I arrived in San Diego to join with the local
chapter of WCW at the Immigration Field Hearings scheduled Aug 14 at the San Diego County Administration
Building. I was greeted
by a small group from Border Angels, an outreach program founded by Enrique
Morones in 2001, dedicated to saving lives of migrant workers who encounter
extreme weather conditions and rough terrain traveling across the border.
Enrique shook my hand warmly and thanked me for coming all the way from LA.
Enrique had reached out to WCW to unite with the Border Angels, and we had responded.
He took up a stack of our Oct 5 flyers and said he plans to mobilize his people
for Oct 5. We shook hands, smiled at
each other, and got to work.
Enrique went inside with some others from Border Angels and
WCW San Diego, to attend the hearing. I settled in to holding our banner,
handing out Oct. 5 flyers and talking to people as they came in and out of the
busy county offices. Most folks had never heard of The World Can’t Wait, and
the idea of driving out the Bush Regime was new to them. They would say things like, “Yeah we
have to get rid of him!” Some people would stop and smile as they read the
banner, “NO people are illegal. NO attacks on immigrants. NO militarization
of the border. BRING THIS TO A HALT! OCT. 5! www.worldcantwait.org”. Some people eagerly took up stacks of flyers,
promising to sign the Call online and get the word out about Oct 5 to their friends
too.
Inside, the hearing consisted of budget costs testimony from
official representatives of law enforcement, customs, immigration, and
healthcare agencies in San Diego
County, and focused on
the economic drain of enforcing current immigration laws. This testimony
underlined the premise and title of the hearing topic, “The Porous Border
and Downstream Costs”, laying groundwork for local governments to pressure
the federal government for increased funding for tighter border security, more
local enforcement, prosecution and detention, and medical care for children of
undocumented migrants. There was no testimony
allowed from the public, though seating of a limited nature was available for
those wishing to attend. Local police guarded the doors and paced the aisles. The
public had no voice inside.
Outside, things had heated up, and there was a completely
different and intense scene. Lots of voices.
Very public. “COCKROACHES!!!! STEP ON”EM!
SPEAK ENGLISH. THIS IS AMERICA!
WE SPEAK ENGLISH HERE! GO
HOME!” These were the voices of the
pacing, flag waving, Minutemen outside. They were out in force. About fifteen
of them circled and paced, holding up huge American flags and hurling racial
slurs at us with unbridled aggression. At one point they had advanced on
crosses laid out on the lawn by the Border Angels in memory of the more than 4,000
migrants who have died or been murdered crossing the border since 1994. They
snarled and stomped maliciously on the crosses, while yelling out “COCKROACHES…KILL”EM”. The San Diego Police intervened to stop them.
“NO ATTACKS ON IMMIGRANTS! NO MILITARIZATION OF THE BORDER! STOP THE
WAR! STOP THE SLAUGHTER! THE WORLD Can’t WAIT!
BRING IT TO A HALT!” Border
Angel and World Can’t Wait voices chanted.
There were about ten of us, and we continued to chant as the Minutemen
went through their overtly racist and at times menacing routine, designed to
provoke. Our resolute chanting seemed to
disappoint them. They eventually left us
and began a flag waving march around the perimeter of the administration
building.
As I drove away later that day, I thought about how clear it
was that these Republican initiated public hearings are designed to give people
the illusion that elected officials are listening to them, when in fact they
are designed to reinforce and underline strategic arguments for a major
increases in federal funding to militarize and fortify the border to suit the
fascist agenda of the Bush regime. I
thought about how Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush have thanked these violently
racist Minutemen publicly for their patriotism in volunteering time and effort
in citizen patrols to help strengthen our borders and “keep Americans safe
from terrorists”.
I also thought about how important it was that this West
Coast tour stop had fostered the beginning of a new and significant relationship
with the Border Angels, which makes possible spreading Oct 5 across the
Southwest and that we had lifted our voices together to repudiate the fascist
direction of the Bush Regime, and stood against their attack dogs, the
Minutemen, with unity and resolve.
All out for Oct 5!