San Mateo protestors march more than 20 miles for immigration reform
San Mateo protesters march more than 20 miles in support of immigration reform
The march, organized by "Rights Over Borders", began at San Mateo City Hall where more than 100 demonstrators set off on a 21-mile walk along El Camino Real to Daly City.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - President Donald Trump’s tough rhetoric on illegal immigration has sparked protests across the country since his inauguration last month. A march for immigration reform organized by a group called "Rights Over Borders" kicked off a march at San Mateo City Hall on Sunday morning.
"My entire community is made up of immigrants and family members who have sacrificed so much to be here and follow the American dream. We’re so proud today to be their voice because I know a lot of people are afraid," organizer Vivian Andrea Valdez, with Rights Over Borders tells KTVU.
The march began at San Mateo City Hall where more than 100 demonstrators set off on a 21-mile walk along El Camino Real to Daly City. The group will caravan from Daly City to arrive at a demonstration in San Francisco.
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Just two weeks ago, "Rights Over Borders" didn’t exist. After media coverage of President Trump's deportation operations started to take over the airwaves, Valdez, a lifelong San Mateo resident, put out a call to action.
"About two weeks ago there was a lot of protests happening around the area, around the United States. I felt like: why don’t we have one here?" Valdez said.
The organizers of the event are calling for immigration reform, and they honed in on one key idea:
"We want them to update the registry. It has not been updated in 39 years," Jena Ly Carreno, Rights Over Borders organizer tells KTVU.
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A national strike is planned on Monday, called ‘A Day Without Immigrants’.
The immigration registry, last updated during former President Ronald Reagan’s time in office, allows undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1972 to be deemed eligible for a green card. Rights Over Borders hopes to see that cutoff date adjusted.
"We’re not asking for it to be updated to 2025, that’s not realistic. But we’re hoping to update it a little further," Carreno said.
According to a report from Axios, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan says about 14,000 immigrants were arrested during the first few weeks of Trump’s second term, some of those arrests took place right here in the Bay Area.
Trump’s deportations over the past month appear to be lagging behind those of former President Joe Biden during his final month in office. Biden’s team arrested more than 21,000 unauthorized immigrants in November alone.
Current numbers of those who have been detained, arrested or deported in the past month are not clear, as Trump's team stopped sharing the data on Feb. 4.
Border czar Homan says border crossings have dropped 92% since Trump took office for his second term. So the big question is: is that the tough rhetoric working?
One counter-protester who supports Trump’s policies made his voice heard outside San Mateo City Hall on Sunday.
"Trump! Go Trump!" he chanted.
KTVU cameras caught an exchange between that counter-protester and a veteran. The veteran, who did not share his name, tells KTVU he knew he needed to show up on Sunday.
"I knew there would be clowns like this guy out here and I need someone to represent the other 50% of this country that really hates what the administration is doing, and it’s ridiculous," the veteran said.