My name is Jesus, I am a 20 year old student about to start as a transfer student in the fall and a member of the San Diego Immigrant Youth Collective. Yesterday was the first day that kicked off the Undocu-Caravan in Escondido, CA, part of San Diego County. In Escondido there is currently a collaboration between ICE and the local police department called Operation “Joint Effort” which came into effect in May of 2010. To this day, based on personal research on the limited amount of articles found online, there is a total of 11 ICE agents stationed at the Escondido Police Department (EPD). However, yesterday when reporters talked to the police, they denied these claims and said that there is actually just 3 ICE agents in their department. Whatever the case may be, the fact that there are ICE agents stationed in the EPD adds to the fear and already anti-immigrant sentiments the community of Escondido already experiences because of the police, check points, policies, politicians and unjust deportations.

Overall, yesterday’s action went great! We started off by marching to the EPD, then rallied on the corner directly across and began the program with speakers. Midway through the program, we moved to block the entrance with a banner that read “Not 1 More Pol-ICE Collaboration” we then moved to all sit on the street surrounding the banner and continued the program. We were sitting down for about 45 minutes-1 hour after which, based on the large amount of positive collective energy, we spontaneously decided/ended up going up and standing right in front of the entrance doors to the EPD. We were chanting, cheering, and making our voices heard. Two of our members tried going in and scheduling a meeting with the chief-of-police which is still being picked. After realizing that the police was not going to come out and potentially retaliate, we returned to the entrance and corner and continued rallying for about another 15-20 minutes. One of the biggest surprise factors was the fact that the police department did not interact with us aside from setting up traffic cones and giving us the one and only warning we received to disperse. We were able to get media coverage and even live coverage on a local station. Ultimately it was a great first day and after the action was when I joined the caravan! I am excited for the rest of the actions to come!

-Jesus D. Mendez-Carbajal