Hundreds Protest In Downtown Riverside In Response To ICE Raids Across California

Around 300 Inland Empire residents gathered in downtown Riverside on June 13 in protest of the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.

“My parents came here illegally originally, and I wouldn’t be here if that hadn’t happened,” Claudia Valdovinos, an attendee, said as she began to tear up. “I don’t feel like any of us are safe, so that’s why I’m here.”

The afternoon protest was planned in response to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across California over the past few weeks, and came on the heels of several demonstrations throughout Los Angeles County that led to President Donald Trump deploying around 700 U.S. Marines and 2,000 National Guard troops to the Southern California county against the will of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. 

For more than six hours, demonstrators stood on the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street. They waved signs admonishing ICE, chanted slogans like “keep families together,” and cheered as passing drivers honked their car horns. They also occasionally marched around a few of the city’s blocks.

Jill Pitt, 57, said she attended the protest because she believes the United States has become unrecognizable from when she was younger. 

“We are going to lose our country if we don’t stand like this and stand in solidarity,” she said. 

The protest started at 12 p.m. with a speech from Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina. The supervisor spoke about his father, who immigrated to the country to search for a better future.

He also called the president’s actions against undocumented immigrants unconstitutional and denounced the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security news briefing.

Earlier this year, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution affirming its commitment to safeguarding the civil rights of all its residents, including immigrant communities. 

“I’m glad we did that,” Medina told The Record. “We were already, a few months back, kind of fearful of what different law enforcement groups might do. We know that it’s important that they follow California law, so I think that was the reason that we did what we did.” 

Riverside County has the sixth-largest Latino population in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, and is in the top 10 list for counties with the largest Latino population increase between 2010 and 2020. The center also found that people of Mexican descent make up 86% of the region’s total Latino population.

A spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department said in an email to The Record that the department does not enforce immigration laws or work with federal agencies on immigration enforcement. They also cited Senate Bill 54, a California law implemented in 2018 that prohibits local police from participating in immigration enforcement efforts with few exceptions. 

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, in a February video shared on social media, said the department does not conduct immigration raids. 

“Your Deputies have not, are not and will not engage in any type of immigration enforcement,” he said. “That is the sole responsibility of the federal government.”

Bianco, who announced his run for governor earlier this year, was also critical of the state’s sanctuary law in the video and has since joined a lawsuit that seeks to overturn SB 54. 

“I will also continue to fight to reform an extremely dangerous sanctuary state law forced upon us by reckless politicians that forces federal immigration officials from ICE into our communities to find these criminals rather than removing them from the safety of our county jails,” he said in the video.

Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez, on Thursday, also released a statement on social media that said his department would fully respect its residents’ right to peacefully protest. There were no officers visibly present during the hours-long demonstration.

The protest remained peaceful, with rally-goers experiencing just a few brief encounters with hecklers that local organizers were quick to de-escalate. They also used the moments as opportunities to ask attendees to participate in ICE-patrol groups within their communities. 

Alan Vargas, a prominent Chicano activist in the Inland Empire, said he’s participated in ICE patrols in his neighborhood, adding that he’s heard reports of undocumented residents being detained by ICE in recent weeks.

“Wherever you are, there is going to be resistance and opposition,” Vargas said in reference to local ICE sightings. “They know that they are not welcome here.”
Tomorrow, demonstrators will again descend on downtown Riverside as part of the nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests. The Riverside protest is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., and is just one of at least 10 such demonstrations set to take place in the county.