WATSONVILLE — More than 100 people celebrated Presidents’ Day Monday by staging a protest against the current one, and his decision to declare a national emergency over immigration issues.
The crowd was made up of the activist groups South County Indivisible, the Pajaro Valley Cesar Chavez Club and Our Revolution Watsonville.
“Many of us have been quite concerned as we watch President Trump dismantle our democracy,” said organizer Olivia Millard.
Millard said that the Trump Administration’s hardline immigration policies have alienated a large part of the Watsonville community.
“The immigrants that live here are the engines of our economy, and they are terrified,” she said. “It is important for all of us to show solidarity.”
President Donald Trump announced his declaration on Friday, saying that he considers the flow of undocumented immigrants a vital problem, and that building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border can help stop it.
Trump has repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to secure $5.4 billion for the wall. The emergency declaration allows him to reallocate taxpayer dollars earmarked for Department of Defense illegal drug enforcement and military construction projects, among other things.
In all, Trump now has access to more than $8 billion.
“We want to stop drugs from coming into our country,” he told reporters during a press conference. “We want to stop criminals and gangs from coming into our country. Nobody has done the job that we have ever done.”
The expected announcement was immediately followed by national outcry from the left and promises of lawsuits to stop the declaration.
California has joined at least 13 states that have vowed to file lawsuits to challenge the emergency declaration.
Many protesters said that the “real emergencies” are crises such as climate change and the thousands of gun deaths in the U.S. every year.
Watsonville City Councilman Felipe Hernandez questioned the need for Trump’s border wall, when immigration is on the decline.
“We’re here to protest Trump’s decision to declare a state of emergency when there isn’t an emergency to declare,” he said.
Suzan Fine said she has been coming for protests every Saturday, “for fear of what’s happening in our country.”
“One of the things that’s most frightening for me is not that he lies, it’s the people who automatically believe him,” she said. “It’s frightful.”
Don Eggleston said he has also been attending the Saturday rallies for “109 straight weeks” since Trump took office.
“Trump’s gotta go,” he said. “We can’t have kids in cages.”
Eggleston was referring to a policy in early 2018 of separating immigrant families at the border and keeping their children in detention centers. Trump signed an executive order in June 2018 to end the separation of families.
A lifelong teacher who founded New School, Eggleston said he started his career to help protect students from the bullying he encountered in school.
“And Trump is a bully,” he said. “This is an existential threat to our democracy.”
Watsonville Mayor Francisco Estrada, who teaches U.S. history at Hartnell College, said he tries to instill in his students a sense of love for the U.S., despite a “past built with intolerance, with hate and with violence.”
“But in spite of all this, the real American revolution is the idea of America,” he said. “It’s the idea that no matter who you are or where you came from, what your history is, you are all welcome in this country.”
