by Laura Garber
“I can’t believe I had to skip a boozy brunch to say ‘don’t kidnap people,’” a protester’s bright pink sign declared. It was the kind of sign one might expect to see at a protest in an affluent city.
The protester was among several hundred people who marched from the Manhattan Beach Pier to the Hermosa Beach Pier on Sunday, June 29, in support of immigrants and undocumented people targeted by federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids.
South Bay Takes a Stand began organizing the march just five days before it took place.
Manhattan Beach resident Tanya Monaghan, an immigrant from South Africa, and one of the organizers, wanted a peaceful place to protest with her young daughter and elderly mother. “A lot of people are scared to go to these larger protests. You never know what’s going to happen,” she said.
During the ‘No Kings’ protest in Torrance on June 14, Monaghan saw how joyful and unified these protests could be and wanted to bring it closer to home. “What is more South Bay than a Strand walk,” she asked.
Co-organizers Luisa Faist and Meghan Judge used their social media platforms to get the word out and secured permits. “Although we lost a lot of followers, we wanted to use our platform for change and to give a voice to the voiceless,” Monaghan said.
Local business owners, including Matthew McIvor, owner of Proudly Serving, a Hermosa Beach restaurant, posted videos asking residents to join them in the Sunday march.
In the days following the protest, Monaghan received “aggressive” online comments, she said. But there were few counterprotestors at the march.
“The fact is there are immigrants in our community and they are an important part of the community’s fabric,” Monaghan said. “At the end of the day, it’s a human rights and constitutional issue. I want to be on the right side of things.” ER
The Beach Cities live in a majority White Bubble so it’s counterintuitive to see them picketing in the streets.
Why do you give these people the time of day. What part of illegal do they not understand. If you illegally come into the country, you should be deported. ICE are totally right by arresting these illegal people. Please do print any more stories about supporters of law breakers it leads to anarchy.
Wake up, and stop ignoring what is actually happening. You are completely missing the problem and the real reason for these protests because you’re deliberately choosing ignorance. Knock it off.
What’s the real reason for protesting the enforcement of immigration law?
It does not stop with Illegal. They are going after all immigrants…H1B, religious, etc… irrespective of legality. Cruelty gets accepted under the guise of enforcement. I’ve been in the country on an H1B and a member of the southbay for the last 20 years. A bunch of my colleagues, we refused entry into the country when traveling for work, because the officer at the port of entry did not think they “deserve” in the country. They all had US citizen kids and were high tax paying members of society.
It should not matter where you were born, every human deserves to be treated respectfully
>They are going after all immigrants
Can someone fact-check this for me? I’ve heard others say this on social media, etc., but it seems like such an obvious and blatant violation of Federal Law that it would be easy for a court to step in and put a stop to the ICE raids, but so far that hasn’t happened. It really makes me question whether or not this is a true statement.