Luna: Latino Community Guards Against Ice Raids In South Bay

Latinos Unidos por una Nueva América (LUNA), founded in 2013 by activist Salvador “Chava” Bustamante, to name a few, intends to organize the Latino neighborhood in the South Bay to establish strategies to much better respond to raids by ICE (Migration and Traditions Enforcement), the federal immigration enforcement firm.

This story belongs to “Aquí Estamos/Here We Stand,” a collaborative reporting project of American Area Media and ethnic/community information electrical outlets statewide tracking exactly how present White Residence policies are influencing Californians, particularly in country areas, and how locals are reacting.

LUNA’s Response to ICE Raids

“No, because someone can also state, ‘If I claim I remain in a self-defense team, they could even detain me,'” Guzmán stated, clearing up that they make use of the term to provide Latinos the opportunity to look for security and shelter as homeowners with lawful rights.

LUNA has an office in La Placita Tropicana, yet according to Guzmán and Manrique, it’s even dangerous and not practical to convene with many people there, for the obvious reason that La Tropicana is popular as a Latino hangout.

Latinos United for a New America (LUNA), a grassroots organization in San Jose, is taking its initial steps toward arranging what it calls “area guards” in action to the Trump management’s anti-immigrant suppression.

Community Guards: A First Line of Defense

Guzmán mentioned that the federal government is “kidnapping individuals also when they appear in court.” In reaction, LUNA is establishing this program, which has three columns: “family members, protection, and education planning.”

And relating to family members plans, the objective is to give family members with the tools to have whatever ready in the event of one or both moms and dads being removed, “where the youngsters go, or with whom, and where they stay.”

Family, Security, and Education Planning

Manrique likewise claimed that Latinos have actually other allied movements such as SURJ (Program Up for Racial Justice), a company comprised of “thousands of white people working for racial and financial justice,” as they define themselves. SURJ has chapters or associates in the Bay Location, and its function is to help people of shade in their struggles for equal rights.

Gabriel Manrique, one more LUNA neighborhood coordinator, shared that the objective is to “develop area leaders, since the area is the first line of protection: they are the ones who report when they see a dubious car or individual” in their areas.

The Area Guardians will be “primarily the area itself. We want to educate individuals to construct a support network that enables us to protect ourselves,” Yurina Guzmán, one of LUNA’s community coordinators, told Peninsula 360 Press.