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Three demonstrators cross Park Boulevard towards a growing crowd Sunday, Feb. 02, 2025 while holding a sign that says, “Respect Our Existence or Expect Our Resistance.” Photo by Keila Menjivar Zamora/City Times Media
Three demonstrators cross Park Boulevard towards a growing crowd Sunday, Feb. 02, 2025 while holding a sign that says, “Respect Our Existence or Expect Our Resistance.” Photo by Keila Menjivar Zamora/City Times Media
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GALLERY: City College faculty, students among protesters against mass deportations

Thousands took to streets Sunday, joining protests that occurred throughout the nation

San Diego City College Chicano/a/x Studies professor Justin Akers was impressed by the movement he saw taking shape as protesters began lining the corner of Park Boulevard and Harbor Drive carrying flags and homemade signs.

“This is reminiscent of the first wave of this movement, which began back in early 2006,” Akers said, “when protests like this developed around the country in response to the passage of a law in the House of Representatives called the Sensenbrenner-King Bill.”

Between December 2005 and May 2006, over 3 million people across the country came out to protest the bill which would have made it a felony to be undocumented in the U.S. The months of organizing paid off and the bill was defeated, according to Akers.

“Now we’re seeing the federal government, the Trump administration, and really broad support within both political parties, or at least increased support, for a new wave of repression,” Akers said. “The recent passage of the Laken Riley Act, which basically is just a further criminalization of undocumented people and opening the door for mass racial profiling, targeting, detention and deportation. To see San Diego coming out like this … it’s very inspiring”

Akers was among several City College community members, including faculty and students, who joined thousands of demonstrators protesting mass deportations in downtown San Diego, Sunday, Feb. 2.

Serina Cuza was one of the City College students who came out to show her support. 

“We’re just here together in hopes that all of the racism will stop and our governments will hear us,” Cuza said, “and the people in power will realize that America cannot function and will not function without the work and without the solidarity and without just the energy of immigrants.”

After gathering at the convention center, protestors marched throughout the Gaslamp District, arriving at the San Diego County Administration Center, where community leaders gave speeches. 

“We must love each other and protect each other,” Marco Amaral shouted into a megaphone. “We have nothing to lose but our chains.” 

Amaral, a science teacher at Castle Park High School and a member of the Association of Raza Educators, was one of the organizers at the event. He said the protest took off organically following efforts from community members, rather than through a formal organizing effort.

“Allowing ICE to go into spaces like hospitals, schools, churches, and really like what (were) once sacred spaces, even for deporter-in-chief Obama or neoliberal democrats,” Amaral said, “ (They’re) no longer sacred spaces in what, I think, many of us can perceive as at least relative to a fascistic regime.”

Intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids as a result of President Trump’s executive orders have led to a string of protests in San Diego, including one in National City on Friday that concluded with police tear-gassing demonstrators.

Sunday’s protest was part of a string of demonstrations leading up to a nationwide strike Monday called “Day Without Immigrants.” The event aimed to emphasize the role immigrants play in the U.S. economy.

Major protests also took place in Los Angeles, New York and Houston. 

City College student Diego Zavala-Morineau was among the marchers carrying a sign that read, “We will never surrender our dignity.”

“The thing is, we have to be brave because we’re scared. We’re scared for our families, for our grandparents,” Zavala-Morineau said. “You can replace homes, you can replace neighborhoods … but you can’t replace your family.”

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