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During
a multiracial coalition protest against Donald Trump’s recent rally in Arizona
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested American citizens because they assumed that any Latino protesters were illegal immigrants. Photo: Diane Ovalle | Mijente. |
On Saturday, March 19th, protestors
shut down one of the major roads in the Phoenix area to protest the upcoming
Donald Trump rally. The activists came from a variety of organizations, but all
had the same goal in mind: proving that many people disagree with Trump’s
anti-immigrant rhetoric.
His statements have become
increasingly violent, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and Islamaphobic in recent
months as he stays in the lead ahead of other Republican candidates. Protests
have sprung up at campaign stops around the country. People demonstrating
against Trump have been assaulted by his supporters and harassed by local law
enforcement.
Trump, notably, has been in
favor of actions against protestors, even going so far as to once offer to pay
the legal fees of anyone who roughs up a protestor at his rallies. His rhetoric
is un-American, and he betrays a gross misunderstanding of the freedoms he
purports to love.
Trump isn’t the only one at
fault. He may be opening up a space in public discourse where white supremacists
feel increasingly safe to voice their opinions, but he is building on an
existing structure of state-sponsored racism.
Jacinta Gonzalez was among
several protestors arrested on Saturday. Following her arrest, she was
questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and, after her
colleagues were released, was transferred to an ICE holding cell.
But Jacinta Gonzalez is an
American citizen, so there was no justification or precedent for ICE being
involved in her arrest. ICE authorities later released her, but the fact
remains that she was only detained because she’s Latina.
Law enforcement saw her,
learned her name, and assumed that she was an illegal immigrant. Because as far
as those officers are concerned, nobody like her is supposed to be living in
the United States.
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