Street Roots • J u ly 13-19, 2018
News
Page 7
Pulse
of a
protest
A t Occupy IC E PDX,
“blood is thicker than water”
P H O T O S B Y A B B IE W IL L IA M S
BY ABBY WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
ith microphone at the ready,
Antonio Zamora stands at the front
of a growing crowd of protestors
amassing at the Hollywood Transit Center.
It’s Sunday July 8, the 21st day of Occupy
ICE PDX, and the afternoon light gives a
pastel glow to the colorful new mural at the
station, while inviting tubs of ice cream melt
in the heat. Looking on from above station
mural are two Portland police officers,
watching over the evening vigil. As more
protestors arrive and curious Trimet
commuters wander over, Zamora a day-
laborer’s advocate who works with Voz
Workers Rights Education Project, begins
the vigil for the children and families
separated by the Trump administration’s
“zero-tolerance’’ policy.
“Abolish ICE!” Zamora calls out Next to
him, a sign language interpreter repeats the
chant
Abolish ICE! the crowd responds.
“Chinga la migra!” Zamora shouts.
Chinga la migra!
The call-and-response echoes the
reverberations of Occupy ICE PDX. This
vigil, the first to take place away from the
encampment outside the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement offices on Southwest
Macadam Avenue, is just one example of the
ripple effect this protest has had,
throughout Portland and beyond.
Occupy ICE PDX is causing national
waves, grabbing headlines in both The New
York Times and The Washington Post.
Individuals Have traveled from California,
Utah, Texas and Louisiana to learn from the
occupation in Portland. Zamora and other
organizers have made plans to travel to the
East Coast to support and grow occupations
in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Similar occupations also have been reported
in Sail Francisco and San Diego.
Protestor Nicholas Knight related Occupy
ICE PDX to a battery that supplies the
charge to the national movement
“In the beginning of the occupation we
were in front of the front gates, we were
stopping the processing of the ICE building
- since they forced us out of that position
now, we are kind of in a stalemate, Knight
said. “I think the tactic changes in that
scenario to providing energy, resources and
inspiration for not only the people here to
act, but also the people of the city and the
nation to act You need to show now,
because there may not be another time like
■
Above, people assemble at the Hollywood M AX station for a protest against ICE activities in
Portland and along the Mexican border. Below, Occupy ICE protester Antonio Zamora, who
works with day laborers at Voz, addresses the crowd.
Strike to revoke ICE permit
On Monday, duly 9, three IC E
Breakers’1 at Portland’s Occupy ICE
encampment next to the ICE facility on
4310 SW Macadam Ave. started a
hunger strike in opposition to ICE and in
solidarity with immigrants and children.
The strikers demand that Portland
City Council must revoke the conditional
use permit granted to ICE, and actively
uphold Portland’s sanctuary status by
prohibiting any further granting of
permits to ICE.
The permit allows ICE to operate the
building’s holding/processing at that
location. The protestors contend that,
until Portland City Council revokes the
permit, Portland will not be a true
sanctuary city because the ICE facility
aids the deportation of immigrants. ■ i
this, that you are willing to put yourself on
the line for people who need it.”
The pulse of Occupy ICE PDX comes in
part from a rotating cast, including Zamora
and Knight, sustaining the occupation. The
camp hosts a surprising diversity and
vibrancy of protestors, including
^professionals who quit their day job to
support the cause, Raging Grannies, law and
medical school students, artists, Buddhists,
mothers with little children that run and
toddle around the camp, and self-described
anarchists and antifascists. And at the
forefront of the protest are people of color,
queer people; arid people with other
marginalized identities. The camp
emphasizes community and respect for all
people.
“I feel such acceptance I have never felt
before,” organizer Reina Delajusticia told
the audience during a recent vigil, “I feel
like a lot of you experience that too. That
drive to create a community for ourselves
and each other is so strong that we can be
out here and feel comfortable. We have to
remind ourselves'why we are here. We have
to remind our officials why we are here. We
have power in direct action. We have power
in humanity; We have power in community.
The people have power.”
The spirit of community can be felt
throughout the Occupy camp; protestors
cook and eat meals together and gather
twice a day for a general assembly and an
evening vigil. The main entrance of the
camp, facing Southwest Bancroft Street, is
protected by fortified barriers made of
wooden pallets arid fencing covered almost
entirely with art, signage and flags. The
colors öf the flags, and art, and the liveliness
of the camp are in stark contrast to the
sterile and imposing exterior of the
neighboring ICE building. The somewhat
haphazardly constructed pallet wall of the
camp borders the tall metal barriers
constructed by ICE officials - the tension
between the two opposing neighbors is
palpable. Since the Department of
Homeland Security raid last Thursday, the
camp has been monitored almost 24/7 by a
security committee.
The camp has grown from ä few tents to
approximately 100 tents that line the bike
path that stretches between the two
buildings. In addition to “residential tents,”
there is a medical tent, an information tent,
a kid’s tent, an art tent, an engineering tent,
a communications tent, showers and a
stocked kitchen with a fully functional
freezer, propane stoves and three coffee
makers which are treated with reverence.
One protestor jokes that “the revolution
runs on caffeine.”
Many protestors serve on organizational
committees, some form the kitchen crew,
others with carpentry experience - or
willingness to learn - fortify the camp
infrastructure. The communications
committee controls social media and
handles interactions with the press. The
leadership of the camp is described as
horizontal - all internal affairs are brought
to a daily general assembly where members
of the camp come to decisions based on
consensus. There is a People of Color
Committee which oversees many camp
decisions, and occupiers said that instead of
tasks being assigned by a top-down
hierarchy of leadership, protestors identify
needs to be filled and step up to the plate to
fill them.
ICE officials, and DHS have taken several
actions to clear the occupation and temper
the spirit of the protest On Thursday, June
2.8, ICE officials and DHS in full riot gear
conducted an early morning sweep and
cleared protestors from the ICE building
driveway, making eight arrests. Most
recently, Monday July 9, DHS officers
arrested three protestors.
On Wednesday, July 11, a group of
protestors while blocking the ICE building
driveway refused to make way for ICE
vehicles and were shot with pepper balls
and pepper spray, taken to the ground, then
had their hands tied behind;their back.
Eight were arrested, bringing the total to 19
arrests. Amid the chaos, onlookers shouted
obscenities at police as the situation
escalated, illustrating that no matter the
forethought and planning, emotions run
high, and confrontations between protestors
and ICE officials can escalate out of Control.
In addition to arrests and sweeps, ICE
officials have taken to some unconventional
tactics to intimidate protestors. These
include blaring metal music, setting off car
alarms early in the morning, and back
lighting cardboard cutouts of Hulk Hogan
and “Twilight” vampire Edward Cullen in
the ICE office, so at night upon first glance,
it looks like an ICE officer is staring down
the camp.
“They do these things to get a rise out of
us and that is text book school-yard bully
behavior,” said protestor, Bobby McMahon,
who is also involved in staging an ongoing
hunger strike. “It’s really strange to see
these,authority figures who hold so much
power act like school-yard bullies.”
The strength of the Occupy ICE
community stands out to protestor Rondlyn
Failey, who had been at the camp for three
days when we spoke. “Blood is thicker than
water” Failey said. “There is something
bigger that we are fighting for.”
Stéphanie Mendosa, one of the few fluent
Spanish speakers at the camp and a
daughter of immigrant parents, related a
moving experience she had on Monday
when she told a mother exiting the ICE
building, “Tequiéro mucho,” which means
“I care about you so; much,” and the mother
responded “muchas gracias por lo que estan
hacienda,” which means “thank you so much
for what you are doing.”
“That” Mendosa said, “is the reason I am
here.”
I f you are interested in getting involved with
Occupy IC E PDX, they encourage attending
a vigil Held at 7:30 p.m. every night at the
camp on 4310 Southwest Macadam Street,
or the vigil held every Sunday at the
Hollywood Transit Center at 6 p.m.