El Cajon residents protest in wake of Supreme Court decision

A speaker at the Sept protest in El Cajon Photo by Roberto Camacho TImes of San Diego About people gathered at the Rally For Immigrants Tuesday afternoon at El Cajon s City Council chambers The protest was in promotion of the region s immigrant region and to demand that the city cease all cooperation with ICE Organizers included groups such as Fuerza Hispana de El Cajon Latinos En Acci n Armadillos Ni Un Migrante Menos and more The coalition has staged several protests over the last several months across the city demanding that El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and members of the El Cajon City Council resign following the passage of a controversial immigration enforcement resolution made earlier this year Wells also declared El Cajon not a sanctuary city and publicly directed El Cajon law enforcement officers to work with federal immigration officials Of the nearly cities in California only two Huntington Beach and El Cajon have officially declared themselves as not sanctuary cities Roughly a third of El Cajon s population identifies as immigrants Tuesday s demonstration took place the day after the United States Supreme Court granted the federal ruling body s request to pause a federal judge s court order that had barred agents from making stops without reasonable suspicion The ruling allows sweeping immigration raids to continue in Los Angeles and other cities and effectively gives federal agents permission to racially profile Civil rights groups have condemned the ruling We took a huge blow with the Supreme Court s decision noted Mairene Branham president of Latinos En Acci n It really set us back about years to with Proposition And it just reminds us that we still have a long way to go it reminds us that we still have to fight for our Brown and Black communities in this country Branham who came to the United States at months old and is now a U S citizen called out what she and others say is hypocrisy from the mayor s office and the city council We deserve great representation moving forward in El Cajon when we are hurting Branham declared We needed leadership and that s not what we have here with El Cajon s city council I m proud to be from El Cajon I m proud to be from a working-class locality and I m proud that my area welcomes immigrants and refugees announced Alexander Kraft a Arrangement Employees International Union board member who is running for mayor of El Cajon I am not proud to be from a city that is known throughout the region as a political stronghold of white supremacy El Cajon resident and organizer Jose Cortes noted he believes that El Cajon s leadership has long been out of step with the values of its constituents They want to sign up El Cajon in the history books not as a place that welcomes immigrants and refugees but as a place of backwardness hatred and repression he reported Cortes who has lived in El Cajon all his life says the city has undergone several changes over the years specifically demographically as people from all over the world have relocated to the region The fact that the City Council is so divorced from the reality that multiple of us live under every single day and wants to pass a meaningless fully performative resolution that flies in the face of SB is indicative that they want to sign up to be on the wrong side of history Cortes reported The people with power do not represent the majority of El Cajon residents explained commented Rev RJ Lucchesi at the council meeting Regionally speaking East County has historically been this stronghold of far-right politics but it s a well-organized minority position Lucchesi stated This is a local fight that connects to the national level When we gain ground here locally we are starting to chip away at the political organizing base of this entire far-right movement