A crowd of protesters gathered today outside the county courthouse to protest U.S. immigration policies, which they say are racist and dehumanizing. And they called for an end to deportations, saying they tear families apart. The crowd included many children, whose handmade signs demanded “ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out of Humboldt.”

One of the organizers, who declined to give her name, saying she feared retaliation against her family, said ICE agents showed up at her brother’s house yesterday looking to arrest him. But law enforcement officials categorically denied that there are any immigration agents operating locally. Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills told the Outpost that he called ICE command central in the Bay Area to see if anything was happening in the Eureka area. “They said absolutely not; they said they don’t have the manpower,” Mills said.

The department even sent out a tweet (in somewhat broken English):

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office also does not believe ICE is in Humboldt County, Mills said.

Regardless, the protest seems to have sprung belatedly from the national “2 million, 2 many” movement, which held a national day of action on April 5. An organizer told the Outpost that the gathering was also co-organized by members of PICO National Network, the San Francisco Organizing Project/Peninsula Interfaith Action (SFOP/PIA), FREE and Mecha de Humboldt State.

Speakers took turns standing on a park bench and addressing the crowd through a bullhorn. Some told personal stories about how deportation has affected them and their families while others led the group in chants of “Sí se puede” and “¡Obama, escucha! ¡Estamos en la lucha!”


Others offered a more blunt message:

“Families are sacred,” one woman declared. “When you attack one of us, you attack all of us.”

Another protester simply said, “We are human beings.”