Across the Central Coast, people took to the streets last weekend in reaction to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on January 7.
Cliff Solomon is an organizer with Indivisible Santa Maria. He said the activist group rearranged its event schedule in order to hold the rally on Saturday in front of city hall.
“We had originally planned to just have this protest to talk about immigration issues,” Solomon said. “But with what happened in Minneapolis, we knew that we just had to do something even more.”
Meghan Macias lives in Santa Maria. She said she decided to attend the Saturday rally after her fiancé learned about it on Instagram, and was glad to see the large crowd of attendees.
“I'm very angry,” Macias told KCBX. “I'm out here to look for community, and I guess just be around people that are similarly angry.”
César Vásquez, an organizer with 805 Undocufund, read out the stories he’d compiled of people who had been arrested by ICE, including his own uncle. Vásquez says all of those stories, plus his own loss, have weighed heavily on him.
“I haven't been able to process or mourn any of it because the second I start mourning one family, another family comes to me, telling me that they've had a loved one taken,” Vásquez said.
San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties have seen a surge of ICE arrests over the last several weeks. In a statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested 118 people between Christmas and New Years.
Vásquez says 805 Undocufund has counted more than 140 people taken by ICE around that time. The immigrant rights group has called Santa Maria the epicenter of the recent surge.
The Santa Maria rally was only one of several demonstrations held over the weekend. Protests and vigils for Renee Good were also held in Atascadero, Los Osos and Paso Robles.
