The Angels – The “We Are All Florida” caravan left California this Monday for Arizona, on a journey that includes stops in several states to gain support and “educate” about the anti-immigrant policies of the Florida governor, Republican Ron DeSantis.
After holding various events in Los Angeles over the weekend, a dozen vehicles with more than 50 people left this city for the state of Arizona this Monday morning as part of the caravan that left San Diego on June 23. and hopes to arrive in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, on June 30 and demonstrate against the anti-immigrant law SB 1718, which goes into effect on July 1.
The caravan made two more stops in Californian cities (San Bernardino and Coachella).
These are the key points of the new anti-immigrant law that will take effect in Florida.
“We hope that this caravan becomes a convoy with many people from their cities, aware of this fight,” Juan José Gutiérrez, director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, who is traveling in the caravan, told EFE.
The activists have scheduled demonstrations at each of the stops they have scheduled, where they will meet with citizens and leaders.
“These talks with mayors, officials and the workers themselves help us educate these people about DeSantis’s attacks, and although it seems that the effort is very small, we are gaining followers and the word spreads,” Gutiérrez declared.
He explained that they are using a similar strategy with which Proposition 187 was defeated, a law approved by California voters in 1994 that was the harshest in the state’s history against the undocumented and that marked the beginning of massive protests in favor of of immigrants without legal status in the United States.
That initiative sought to prohibit the undocumented from accessing public health and education services in California, and advocated the deportation of immigrants by requiring teachers, doctors and police officers to report any alien suspected of not having legal status.
Proposition 187 never took effect because of a lawsuit that eventually got a court to declare it unconstitutional.
In solidarity with the Latino workers in Florida who called a work stoppage on Thursday to protest the anti-immigrant law of the governor, Ron Desantis, which will go into effect on July 1, in Los Angeles, several organizations joined the call with a march and asking Do not consume products from that state.
“In Florida, that strategy is also going to be used. We are aware that there is a legal team that will file a lawsuit, but we cannot leave this in the hands of the lawyers. The first thing is to create awareness of how dangerous these initiatives and people like De Santis are,” Gutiérrez said.
With this message the caravan will make stops in Phoenix and Tucson (Arizona); Las Cruces (New Mexico); El Paso, San Antonio and Houston (Texas), and New Orleans (Louisiana). A group from Chicago, Illinois will also be leaving to join the caravan.
The final stop is the Florida capital, where the activists hope to arrive on June 30 to support a multi-day boycott.
Union leader Dolores Huerta will also join the effort.
