More than 100 protesters gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Morgan Hill on Saturday, denouncing recent immigration enforcement actions and demanding the facility’s closure as part of a years-long campaign against the federal presence in South County.
The Feb. 7 protest came as the Bay Area prepared to host the Super Bowl, with organizers saying they wanted to use the national spotlight to bring additional attention to the issue, noting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would be visiting the Bay for the event.
“The goal of this protest is in front of the ICE Office to hold ICE and Kristi Noem accountable for all those whose lives have been lost to ICE,” organizers wrote in a message accompanying the event flyer. “We also want to honor the lives lost.”
The demonstration, organized by a coalition of local advocacy groups, drew community members, faith leaders and elected officials including Morgan Hill City Council member Yvonne Martínez Beltrán, who expressed fears about the current climate of immigration enforcement.
“I am afraid and I’m scared,” Martínez Beltrán told the crowd. “Lately this month after Renee Good, after Alex Pretti … I’m now terrified. Because I don’t know what’s next.”
Martínez Beltrán referenced recent incidents involving the killing of two U.S. citizens by ICE officers in Minneapolis in two separate incidents in January. She said she saw herself in Good, a single mother of three, and compared Pretti to the men in her own life.
“Renee Good, I see myself in her,” she said. “I have three little girls. You all see yourself in her, you see your mom, you see your daughter, your friend, your cousin… Which of our men would not help a woman who’s been pepper sprayed and pushed and shoved to the ground?”
Activists have been protesting the Morgan Hill ICE office, located on Vineyard Court, regularly since 2017 and have worked unsuccessfully to convince the property owner to terminate the agency’s lease.
The demonstration featured testimony from community members affected by immigration enforcement. One speaker read an anonymous account from a man who spent six months in ICE detention after serving 17 years in state prison, describing conditions he called dehumanizing.
The protest featured chants including “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA” and “From Morgan Hill to every town, shut their ICE offices down.” A common sign carried by protesters read “Dignity and Human Rights for All.”
Uniformed ICE officers were not present during the demonstration. Private security guards turned away visitors with appointments at the immigration office, telling them the office had been vacated due to the protest, which remained peaceful.
