Today’s Action: Urge California Attorney General to drop charges on protestors

Around 600 activists showed up at the San Diego federal courthouse to protest Operation Streamline, a fast-tracked immigration court system designed to rotate dozens of immigrants en masse through legal proceedings per day. With Trump’s zero-tolerance policy flooding the system with asylum seekers, the GOP is keen to expand this atrocious Bush-era system which values speedy indictments over any semblance of due process.

Back to the San Diego 600, who were led by a Latinx organization called Mijente. Ten of these peaceful protestors hung a banner on a building opposite the courthouse that said “Free our families now – #StopStreamline.” These ten, all of whom are Black and Latinx, were arrested and now face felony charges from the California Attorney General’s office.

It’s bad enough that asylum seekers are facing violent family separation, immediate deportation, and an utter disregard for constitutional due process. It gets worse when peaceful protestors speaking out for them are thrown in jail.

Call California District Attorney Summer Stephan at 619-531-4040 and demand she drop all charges against the San Diego protestors.

We are grateful for these protestors, highlighting the many egregious issues with Operation Streamline. A fast-tracked one-day court proceeding leaves little time for translation between immigrants and their defense attorneys, and an utter lack of reasonable time for overall preparation required by constitutional due process. Not to mention the common practice of shackling (yes, literal shackling at the ankles) of immigrants during this process, despite their non-violence charges. To put it colloquially and lightly, Operation Streamline is all kinds of wrong.

Which is why we must fight against Operation Streamline by continuing to speak out — and support and defend those protestors arrested for doing that important work for us.

Flood the phone lines of California District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office by calling 619-531-4040 and demanding all charges dropped against the San Diego protestors.