SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— The sound of drums roared throughout Downtown San Diego Saturday morning, as thousands of people participated in the “Families belong together.” Many who danced, marched, and rally said their frustrations against federal immigration policies had reached an all-time high.
After scveral speakers took to the podium at the Civic Center, Aztec dancers led the marchers to the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building.
At the rally, 10News met immigration attorney, Dulce Garcia. She said for her, the struggle was personal.
“I’m lacking papers,” she said, unapologetically.
Garcia was just four years old when her mother risked her life to bring her impoverished family across the border from Mexico.
“My grandma’s house didn’t even have a floor. When it rained and it soiled, it became muddy,” she said.
Garcia is an undocumented immigration attorney — a living oxymoron. But she said she is also a DACA recipient, a UCSD graduate, a San Diegan, who cannot stand seeing children being separated from their parents.
“All I had was my family,” she said in tears. “We had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except for my family. I was literally holding onto my mom’s hands because I was terrified.”
The now 35-year-old remembers getting robbed at gunpoint. Somehow her family escaped. Then, they began their lives in Barrio Logan.
Many of the marchers held posters of slavery and the Japanese internment. Some said the inhumane treatment of immigrants have taken place for too long, and now I the time for real change.
“Now we are caging kids. And the imagery has been a catalyst to do something about it,” Garcia said.
Congressman Scott Peters was also at the rally. He too said he is disheartened by this administration.
“It’s just so immoral. It’s so un-American,” Peters said.
He hopes to change the current narrative on immigration.
“President Trump issued this Executive Order, which we know is almost certainly illegal, because it provides for indefinite detentions when only 20 days is allowed, so we’d like to have a vote in Congress and do something real.”
Garcia hopes that happens sooner than later.
“I believe one day, I will be able to say I was formerly undocumented. Today, I’m just an immigration attorney,” Garcia said.
