Immigrant advocates gather in Downtown El Paso in ‘solidarity' with Los Angeles protests
What to know about Trump's deployment of the Marines and National Guard to LA's immigration protests
The protests in Los Angeles made national headlines as they escalated this past Sunday with protesters blocking a major freeway and vandalizing self-driving cars and law-enforcement vehicles.
President Donald Trump also announced that he was deploying National Guard and Marines to quell the protests. The initial 2,000 National Guard troops arrived Sunday. On Monday, the president announced he was sending an additional 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines.
In El Paso, the BNHR calls Tuesday evening's demonstration a 'peaceful vigil,' in which they will also call for an end to ICE's 'terrorizing' immigration enforcement tactics and for the immediate withdrawal of military forces from Los Angeles and the border.
'What we're seeing in Los Angeles is not new. It's the amplification of a strategy we've endured at the border for years,' said Fernando Garcia, the executive director for BNHR, in a news release.
'ICE has become a political weapon used to terrorize our communities,' Garcia said. 'This administration is exploiting law enforcement and military personnel, placing them at the center of an anti-democratic agenda that undermines the very freedoms they swore to defend. We're not here to vilify individuals in uniform. We're here to demand accountability from the leadership that is weaponizing them against our people.'
Meanwhile, Michael Aboud, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, said that while people have the right to protest, he condemned the vandalism that transpired over the weekend.
'If you come here illegally, you're not allowed to stay, period. The ones that are destroying property, they're burning the U.S. flag and they're flying foreign flags. That's what's concerning. You want to protest in peace? We've allowed that since the beginning of our country, OK. But the ones that are the problem are the ones that are doing all the destruction. You can have a wrong opinion and be able to speak about it,' Aboud said.
Aboud praised the Trump administration's immigration efforts and shared a message for El Pasoans who will demonstrate Tuesday evening.
'They don't get to decide what the law is. They don't get to decide that. They go to any foreign country and go there illegally and stay and then tell those people what the foreigner's wishes are. Listen to what law enforcement says to you. Cooperate and go home peacefully,' Aboud said.
Alan Lizarraga, communications manager for the BNHR, stressed the importance of El Pasoans demonstrating in light of what occurred at Los Angeles.
'What has been unfolding in Los Angeles was an intended provocation. It is a manufactured crisis for the government to be able to excuse what they're doing in our communities. If we don't stand up against what's happening in L.A., what guarantees that tomorrow they're not going to start doing the same here in El Paso.' Lizarraga said.
'What we have to understand is that El Paso has been the center point to the policies that we're seeing nationwide. We have seen militarization of our border. We've seen how immigration enforcement has turned into a paramilitary operation now. So what communities in Los Angeles saw over the weekend was just that. It was armed soldiers and armed vehicles going after hard-working individuals,' Lizarraga added.
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