Dallas immigration advocates hold rally amid ongoing raids
On Monday, several local immigration advocacy groups hosted what they described as a peaceful rally at the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas after days of ongoing immigration raids and counterprotests in Los Angeles.
Immigration advocates from North Texas, like Azael Alvarez, are speaking out.
"You know, LA has faced a lot throughout this past weekend, as you've seen with the military being sent there, the National Guard, and it's very scary out there," said Alvarez, an El Movimiento organizer. "We must come out and show out for those who are afraid to come out."
Those like Alvarez and Antonio Rodriguez said this is about speaking up on the injustices many immigrants and Latinos are currently facing.
"We need to take control of the power we already possess, there's lots of us… that what happens in L.A. matters to people in DFW, it matters to people in Colorado and Chicago… that we are one big community, and if we understand that, then we will be able to push back and stop this," said Rodriguez, an organizer with Brown Berets.
The Trump administration's "border czar" has warned that immigration enforcement will continue "every day" in Los Angeles, leaving people in DFW worried.
"We've seen the action of ICE ramp up around the country. We've seen the dirty tactics of abducting, ambushing people in the hallways of courtrooms. We've witnessed it, at Vecinos Unidos, through our court sit-ins," said Noemi Jimenez, with Vecinos Unidos. "And I think it's important that Dallas rises proactive to stand in solidarity with L.A., make sure that ICE knows they're not welcome here either."
While immigration raids and apprehensions throughout the United States aren't new, it's the resiliency of the undocumented Latino community that organizers hope is remembered.
"Our DFW community, although it is living under fear, the story that isn't being told is that our community is very brave, so I feel that our community right now understands that, that our resistance and our fight, it's just starting," Rodriguez said.
CBS News Texas contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask about its response to the rally, and whether there are any immigration raids planned soon within the metroplex. In a statement, a spokesperson said:
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions. That being said, ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy. ICE prioritizes public safety over politics. Brave officers are on the streets every day, risking their lives to locate, arrest and remove the most egregious criminal aliens in line with the president's policy of 'worst first.'"
