ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE

By Momii Palapaz 

Photo Credit: Momii Palapaz

Thousands of students gathered at Delores Park in Yelamu/SF last week, protesting ICE. Responding to mass outreach from high school students in Minneapolis, thousands across Turtle Island shut down school and marched down the streets of their cities.  

I thought of my mom when she was just 18 years old, ready but not allowed to attend graduation and get her diploma. It was 1942 and the Takagi family was ordered to report to a designated site. No other details were given. In the midst of round ups by the FBI and WRA (War Relocation Authority), Japanese Americans and their families were deemed a threat and imprisoned. Being farmers, they hauled mom and dad, aunts, uncles, grandpas, and 5 kids from Redwood City onto the truck destined to go east. “Go east” someone told them. They were one family of about 1,000 people who tried to get free of the concentration camp. They only made it to Marysville, CA. Not far enough.

Mission, Balboa, Washington and numerous public school students were seen walking, getting off buses, and climbing the hillside of Delores Park. It was saturated with people, all ages, all ethnic backgrounds. But what was most impressive was the vitality of the movement and the serious attention they gave the speakers. “Fuck ICE” and chants of “ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE” that roared through the neighborhood of false borders.