In a protest accompanied by Aztec dancers, lowriders and plumes of burning incense, over 150 marched to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement area workplace in Morgan Hill.
The varied group of marchers got here out Thursday afternoon to protest ICE enforcement and the continued immigration crackdown spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration, deriding the consequences of the actions on their communities, providing a present of political pressure exterior of the Bay Space’s city facilities.
“We are here to speak up and show up for those who are being taken,” stated Rebeca Armendariz, a former Gilroy Metropolis Council member and one of many organizers of the march, who stated ICE was threatening immigrant communities and being “dismissive of our constitutional and our civil rights.” “First it’s them, then it’s us.”
Beneath the recent afternoon solar, a cadre of Aztec dancers stomped and swayed to the relentless tattoo of drums, the foot-long feathers of their crowns bouncing to the rhythm as they led the marchers on a mile-and-a-half trek by means of Morgan Hill’s major thoroughfare. Onlookers watched the group transfer by means of the streets, waving from balconies or taking pictures video from their automobiles and porches.
The protest drew a various crowd from Morgan Hill and throughout the South Bay to protest in entrance of the ICE workplace, from union members to younger households and clergy.
Aztec dancers from a number of teams across the Bay Space are lead by a drum together with protesters and march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Protesters march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong speaks after protesters march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Individuals watch protesters march from the Morgan Hill Cultural Heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Protesters march from the Morgan Hill Cultural Heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Aztec dancers from a number of teams across the Bay Space are lead by a drum together with protesters and march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Aztec dancers from a number of teams across the Bay Space are lead by a drum together with protesters and march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Aztec dancers from a number of teams across the Bay Space are lead by a drum together with protesters and march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Julie Meyerson, of Sunnyvale, marches with protesters from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
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Aztec dancers from a number of teams across the Bay Space are lead by a drum together with protesters and march from the Morgan Hill cultural heart to the ICE workplace in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
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“It’s a justice issue. … There’s a quite a strong sense that our faith calls us to do this,” stated Reverend Mary Blessing, an Episcopal priest, noting “Jesus was a refugee.”
Casey Sutterland got here along with her associate and two youngsters to the protest from San Jose. “My grandparents were in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis. … I want my kids to feel like they’re part of that legacy of resistance.”
Some recalled the detention of native Ulises Peña Lopez, a Sunnyvale resident who needed to obtain emergency medical remedy after being detained by ICE.
Others referred to as out Trump’s government order searching for to finish sanctuary legal guidelines that exempt locations like hospitals from immigration enforcement exercise. “There’s so much fear,” stated Darlene Torres-Voss. “We deserve to know that when we walk into a hospital, we won’t walk out in handcuffs.”
ICE and the Morgan Hill area workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the protesters’ issues.
Standing in entrance of the ICE workplace, Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong famous the county’s continued funding and response towards the Trump administration and referred to as for unity all through the South Bay. “Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,” she stated, recalling the welcome and help her dad and mom obtained as Vietnamese refugees in San Jose. “That is the spirit, that is the legacy. To stand with immigrant families is in our blood.”
