Protestors stood outside Representative Devin Nunes’ office in Downtown Visalia on July 2 to protest immigrant detention camps.
“We’re out here protesting the deplorable conditions these kids are being kept in,” said Julia Jump-Doyal, a protestor.
She emphasized the importance of calling attention to the border camps.
The protest follows a call from MoveOn, a political advocacy group urging residents to use the Fourth of July weekend to gather at their representative’s office. The slew of nationwide demonstrations is being gathered under the banner of #CloseTheCamps.
“It’s become politicized,” said Chris Polk, an organizer at the event. “Keeping kids in cages is directly against our American values and we need to remind some people of that,” he said, gesturing to the top of the building toward Nunes’ office.
Constituents and residents of neighboring districts alike stood united.
Many of the activists present at the event live in Three Rivers, which lies outside the district’s boundaries.
“It’s important to show up at these kinds of things and we can’t get someone good to run against Kevin McCarthy. He’s the House Minority Leader after all,” said a protestor from Three Rivers.
As cars passed by, some honked in support of the protest. The activists clapped and raised their signs higher when they got feedback.
Not all were fully supportive of the event, though.
“I just think it’s important to display all the real facts,” said Steve Ray, a passerby. “It all depends on what people want to call a cage. Is it a cage just because the fence is chain link?” He did not seem to have decided on the issue, but Ray said he wanted to start a dialogue.
Some protestors arrived with signs and wore black shirts with “Antifascist” and the words “No Pasaran” in a logo on the shirt. They declined to comment.
If you’re going to protest, be prepared to offer an intelligent alternative to what you protest.
Should we enforce existing federal laws or just those that make us feel good?
I agree, we should place the children back with there families, back in the there country of origin! We have laws in this country that we must & they (immigrants) should follow. Those so called camps are better than the terrain they came across to get here, illegally!
Obama deported more people than Trump and as a democrat I’m proud he did. we don’t need to build a border wall. we need to help out the countries economically like we did with japan & Europe after WW11 and invade them & Mexico too to get rid of the gangs so the people will want to stay home & not come here. more people have died because of gangs & drugs than on 9/11. Now California legalized marijuana what a joke. most crimes are the result of theft, druggies & thieves. non non non and prison realignment is a joke. the 3 stooges would do a better job running our: courts, jails & prisons
I’m not here to debate left vs right bull crap. But this year Devin Do Nothing has raised over 3 million dollars for his campaign with only less than 5% of that coming from his own district let alone the state. He does not represent Tulare or the valley anymore. He doesn’t give a damn about us he’s a Washington politician now. But you all can continue debating left vs right while he sucks the valley dry and fills his pockets.