WATCHER DIGEST: MARCH
San Diegans spent March aiding locals and asylum seekers, and demanding justice on multiple fronts.
San Diegans spent March advocating for human dignity. Regular people rallied for peace and justice in Palestine, demanded humane treatment for incarcerated people, aided asylum seekers, and fought for greater aid from the city following the winter’s inclement weather.
March 3rd: I had the opportunity to shadow aid workers at the San Diego International Airport last night, where Border Patrol has been dumping asylum seekers after being held at Open Air Detention Sites. As is the case with those dropped at transit centers within the county, migrants at the airport are being dropped with neither resources nor guidance. While some asylum seekers only speak Spanish, many others speak languages that are more uncommon in the US. They are forced to navigate the US travel system with no translators.
Many asylum seekers have immigration court dates in cities that are several states away, but were given no guidance by DHS. Some have dates, but no funds to purchase an airplane ticket—many are fleeing conflict and oppression and spent all they had to get to the United States. Others, similarly, were robbed along the way.
With no accommodation from the federal, state, or local government, these asylum seekers often have to sleep in the airport while they wait for their flights.
Last night, volunteers distributed hundreds of meals. Roughly 280 meals had been distributed by the time I left the aid workers. I’m told more than three hundred asylum seekers are in the airport today.
Asylum seekers slept on the floor. Some were visibly recovering from injuries—one migrant had a large cast below from below the knee to their foot and had to be pushed in a wheelchair by their fellow travelers.
There were numerous children—including infants being breastfed by tired, stranded mothers.
Volunteers identified We All We Got San Diego (@/weallwegotsd) as the primary collective helping asylum seekers at the airport. The collective is entirely funded by donations. WAWGSD has been purchasing meals, shelter when possible, and airplane tickets as needed. The collective has donation methods in their page’s bio. They also have a GoFundMe campaign, accessible via https://gofund.me/7242fbab in browser.
Border Patrol continues to hold asylum seekers in open-air detention sites throughout the county. It has allowed far-right agitators to approach these sites to film and harass migrants, destroy shelters built by volunteers and asylum seeker—and at times, attack them.
March 4th: San Diegans rallied outside of Northrop Grumman’s offices in Rancho Bernardo today, demanding an end to arms shipments to Israel and calling for workers to quit.
“We welcome you to walk out,” said one speaker.
Demonstrators brought signs, banners, and a large number of shrouded dolls representing the infants killed by occupation forces during the offensive. Demonstrators asked the world to name what’s happening in Gaza—to call it the Genocide that it is. The ICJ found it plausible that Israel’s actions could constitute genocide, and ordered the nation to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
When the ICJ issued this judgment, roughly 26,000 Palestinians were confirmed to have been killed since October 7th. At the time of writing, 4,500 more Palestinians have been killed, bringing the total death toll to 30,534. This figure does not include missing people who may be dead under the rubble.
Demonstrators today held a moment of silence for Aaron Bushnell and those slain in Palestine.
“Every single child, aid worker, mother, father and all under the rubble or buried in road side graves,” were named and mourned.
Bushnell, the 25-year old active Air Force member self-immolated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., condemning the genocide and calling for a free Palestine with his last breath.
Demonstrators also mourned the victims of the Flour Massacre, the 117 killed and 750 wounded by the IDF while trying to obtain food in the starved Gaza City.
Organizers elaborated on today’s action in an online statement.
They wrote, “This company Is deeply complicit with Israel’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing; [supplied] the longbow system in their Apache AH64D helicopters which provide rapid detection of targets, developed manned aircraft middle systems which the Israeli Air Force uses to target and attack Palestinian civilians, [and] works alongside other weapons manufacturers to produce and provide [fighter jets].”
In December of 2023, Northrop Grumman was “awarded an $8,856,018 contract for 30mm MK44 Stretch cannons ... under the Foreign Military Sales program to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.”
Learned of this action via @northcounty4palestine
March 6th: Thousands of students and community members rallied at UC San Diego today, demanding freedom and justice in Palestine, an end to the genocide, and for the university to divest from firms funding apartheid in Israel.
Ahead of today’s action, UCSD notified students and staff that a “larger-than-usual security presence” would be on site. This presence appears to have included police and private security.
Speakers at the beginning and end of the action lamented the political climate in the US and abroad. One speaker put it succinctly, “it should not be radical to want a genocide to end.”
Another speaker with Jewish Voice for Peace rebuffed allegations that the BDS movement is antisemitic. They remarked that neither Burger King nor Starbucks were their culture, and that a tenet of the Jewish faith is to reduce suffering in the world.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th. According to Al-Jazeera, South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to order additional emergency measures against Israel as famine in Gaza seems imminent.
Per the Guardian, the Biden administration has unilaterally approved more than 100 military sales to Israel since the current offensive began. The administration did so in relative secret by keeping the dollar amounts of each sale under the threshold for disclosure and congressional oversight. This is in addition to the $573 million in shipments the US has made.
Per SDUT, "UCSD records suggest that [today's] rally was larger than some of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations that roiled the campus in the 1970s."
March 7th: Community members and families impacted by jail deaths rallied outside the Vista Detention Facility today, calling for an end to in-custody deaths. One such death occurred earlier this week when a man was arrested in Cardiff. Deputies say the man was under the influence and self-injurious once in the patrol car. Police say he was placed in a WRAP restraint device after flailing at and kicking deputies.
Investigators told NBC San Diego that “after paramedics arrived, the man suffered a medical emergency, lost consciousness and stopped breathing … he was pronounced dead at a hospital at about 4 a.m.”
Attendees today drew parallels between Monday’s death and that of Earl McNeil, a man who died in 2018 after being placed in a WRAP restraint with two spit bags and a t-shirt over his head. According to KPBS, no law enforcement officers were charged by DA Summer Stephan. McNeil was experiencing a mental health episode when he turned himself into police in National City. He suffered from schizophrenia.
Speakers called for greater transparency. Yusef Miller noted that two options available to arresting officers had seemingly not been taken—neither the county’s Mobile Crisis Response Teams or its Psychiatric Emergency Response Team seem to have been contacted.
Miller called the investigation of one local law enforcement agency by another inadequate, and called for an independent body to investigate law enforcement misconduct. He also felt that had mental health services been called, this death might have been avoided.
Speakers also condemned the mistreatment of people with mental illnesses in county jails. One speaker argued that the county is jailing people who desperately need treatment, not incarceration.
Elisa Serna’s mother told press that her daughter had been failed by many different people within the jail system. She said Elisa had been neglected to death, as evidenced by videos of Elisa collapsing over and over in her cell without being treated. Elisa Serna died in jail in 2019, five days after being booked. Videos of the mistreatment were shown at trial, but aren’t yet public.
As of this week, four people have died in-custody in San Diego this year.
March 9th: I was tipped off to a counter-demonstration outside the Chula Vista stop of Franklin Graham’s “God Loves You Frontera” tour. Demonstrators argued that Graham was using religion to enrich himself and sow bigotry. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Graham has characterized queer people as part of a “deepening depravity that now vexes our country.” He also claimed that “the media and the left manipulated the [2020] election,” and characterized the mounting charges against Donald Trump as politically motivated.
Protesters denounced Graham’s support of bigoted institutions. They also accused Graham of using the southern border as a political pawn. They urged Graham to care about the poor as much as he seemed to care about people’s personal sexual choices.
One protester adapted Matthew 25:42-43. They said, “For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me, Franklin Graham. I was thirsty, and Franklin Graham didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and Franklin Graham didn’t invite me into his home. I was naked, and Franklin Graham didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and Franklin Graham didn’t visit me.”
That verse continues: Christ admonishes those who claim to know Him but refuse to help those in need.
Several attendees of the event were confrontational with the protesters. Some approached me to voice their disdain and call the protest offensive. Others leered at the protesters, and one man spent the evening trying to drown out protesters with tepid contemporary Christian rock.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reclassified as an “association of churches,” allowing it to become tax exempt. Following this approval by the IRS, the organization has not had to file a 990, obfuscating its finances. In 2014, the organization saw revenues of $106 million but still claimed a loss. Its net assets—the value of the organization’s total liabilities subtracted from its assets—was $107 million that same year.
On Twitter, some users have called for the construction of a border wall. The region south of Graham’s sermon yesterday is already blocked off by a thirty-foot wall.
March 13th: Hundreds rallied in downtown San Diego today, demanding an end to the ongoing siege of Gaza and condemning Senator Alex Padilla for complicity in arming Israel. As the genocide nears 160 days, more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed. Countless more have been wounded, and many face starvation as Israel blockades aid.
Speakers also condemned local media coverage of Palestine—the lack of substantive coverage, and the San Diego Union Tribune’s characterization of a UCSD pro-Palestine demonstration as “largely peaceful.” Speakers contested this language, and argued that the SDUT hasn’t covered the genocide in Palestine sufficiently, let alone fairly.
One speaker remarked that people often wonder how the holocaust unfolded. They then told the crowd that a genocide in Palestine is currently unfolding, despite society’s advances in media, internet, and access to information.
Another speaker remarked that Israel arms the right-wing government in the Philippines. That speaker elaborated that San Diegans live in a region with a remarkably dense concentration of military resources, and that locals have an obligation to resist the export of fascism—as in future joint training operations with the US military and Bongbong Marcos’s. To put it succinctly: as Israel upholds an apartheid regime, it arms a fascist government that then trains with the US.
Protesters rallied outside of the building where Padilla’s local office is located. They then marched up the street to demonstrate outside an SDUT advisory board dinner, where protesters demonstrated for a time.
At both locations, police surveilled protesters. At the first location, police watched from every street that had a line of sight into the corporate plaza. At the second, police watched from across the street at either intersection.
One counter protester approached the crowd with a United States/Israel flag. He was guided back across the street by police.
The US has begun construction of a temporary port on the Gaza coast rather than open land crossings to aid. Air-dropped meals have not come close to meeting the need on the ground—and an invasion of Rafah seems imminent.
Learned of event via @pymsandiego
March 15th: Students marched from school to San Diego City Hall today, demanding support for communities impacted by this season’s flooding—neighborhoods like Barrio Logan and Southcrest. Speakers argued that the city’s neglect of environmental justice communities of concern allowed the flooding to wreak havoc.
This intersection of climate change and structural inequality was reflected in the students’ signs, most of which demanded climate action and broader equity.
“No one is free when others are oppressed,” read one sign.
“Earth is on its deathbed,” read another.
A community organizer from Barrio Logan recounted January’s floods. They described sudden flooding and power outages, and that the quieting of the outage gave way to multiple screams for help. Barrio Logan has been struggling to keep its neighborhood, and the flood intensified the pressure on its residents.
The city left people to survive on their own during the flood and let landlords evict people in the flood’s wake, said the organizer.
“We the hood saved ourselves,” they said.
Voice of San Diego reported that “[The city and the county] were mired in confusion about what entity should perform what role” in the wake of the flood. Further, “The city and county’s bureaucratic showdown ultimately cost the flood survivors of Shelltown, Mountain View and Southcrest precious weeks.”
Demonstrators are demanding compensation for community members who met needs that ought to have been met by city emergency services. Further, they’re calling for protection from landlords, just compensation from insurance, and extended stays in the city’s emergency hotel program—it’s unclear how people who lost everything in the flood were meant to get back on their feet after only ten days.
One student speaker called the city’s neglect before and after the flooding a continuation of redlining.
The city was aware of the need to clear culverts in Southcrest for years before January’s storm. The SDUT reported on a 2022 city infrastructure report which read, “the City’s stormwater infrastructure, most of which was built in the 20th Century, is past its useful life, resulting in system deterioration and failure.”
March 16th: Border Patrol continues to drop asylum seekers off at transit stations throughout the county, without informing many migrants of their current location or the how to get to the airport. Since men are separated from women and children, some families wait more than a week to be reunified—in some cases, family members are released from Border Patrol custody seven or eight days apart.
These street releases resumed after the SBCS migrant welcome center was closed last month. That center was meant to mitigate the harm and confusion inflicted by Border Patrol’s street releases last year. This time around, there is even less help offered by the city or county.
The county provided some aid and portable toilets last year. This time, no toilets are being provided to asylum seekers by city, county, state, or federal agencies.
When migrants are granted asylum and released from custody, they have to appear in a court proximal to their asylum sponsor. Many of these sponsors are several states away. Many asylum seekers can't afford plane tickets, having been robbed and extorted along the arduous journey to the US.
Today, migrants were tagged with wristbands that included their full names and countries of origin. Many do not speak Spanish, let alone English.
Three bus-loads of asylum seekers were dropped at the transit center I visited today for just over an hour. There were children and pregnant mothers among them. MTS police were guarding the lot, telling migrants to move off certain parts of MTS property. Asylum seekers laced up their shoes, after having to remove their belts and laces to be allowed into CBP processing facilities.
These asylum seekers are being dropped onto the street after being held in Border Patrol’s open-air detention sites, ad-hoc outdoor holding facilities where migrants are provided insufficient food and no shelter. Whether in San Ysidro between thirty-foot border walls or in the open desert of Jacumba, Border Patrol has forced asylum seekers to languish in the open elements without shelter. The agency has run these sites since at least September.
Organizations like @alotrolado_org @weallwegotsd are filling the service gaps left by the state.
March 23rd: Demonstrators rallied at the San Ysidro US/Mexico border crossing today, calling for a free Palestine and an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Protesters gathered at PedWest and marched to the eastern crossing. Once there, attendees heard speeches from various groups supporting peace and justice in Palestine. The march and both gatherings were followed and observed by police.
Speakers touched on the gravity of the situation in Palestine. The majority of Gazans today are suffering “catastrophic hunger” according to CNN. Food shortages are compounded by the state-sanctioned blockage of aid into the besieged region. Famine is imminent and more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by occupation forces since October. Over 13,0000 of those killed were children.
Speakers reiterated the importance of Boycott, Divest, and Sanction activities. According to the Palestinian BDS National Committee, “Chevron has been the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Speakers from San Diego’s BDS movement noted that California is home to the highest concentration of Chevron gas stations in the country.
Jenn Budd, a former Border Patrol agent who resigned in objection to harm done by the agency, remarked on the interconnectedness of the Palestinian struggle and that of the US-Mexico borderlands. The technology that Border Patrol uses to police the region is often sourced from Elbit Systems, an Israeli firm.
According to The Intercept, Border Patrol is working to enhance its network of over 1,000 surveillance towers in the borderlands by combining the towers into “a single unified program” and “integrating AI into [their] ability to detect movement and activity.”
Border Patrol received a funding increase in a budget appropriation bill yesterday. According to NPR, the House approved $61.8 billion for DHS, including $9.5 billion to ICE and $850 million to CBP for marine vessels, aircrafts, and unmanned aerial systems. The Biden administration has applauded the bill.
According to Jacobin, in the 150 days following October 7th, Biden sold arms to Israel every 36 hours, on average.
March 29th: San Diegans rallied at the County Administration Building yesterday, commemorating Land Day and holding an open Jumu’ah prayer. Land Day commemorates the 1976 killing of six Palestinians who were protesting Israel’s land seizures.
Palestinians in Gaza have been driven south into Rafah by months of genocidal assault. Since October, occupation forces have designated and redrawn safe zones—attacking refugee camps in former safe zones. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 75,000 have been injured. Thousands more are missing.
In the past few days, the US authorized the transfer of bombs and jets to Israel. Reuters reports that thousands of bombs are slated for transfer.
At yesterday’s rally, speakers reflected on Land Day and the current genocide. One speaker recalled the Great March of Return, weekly protests in which Palestinians marched to the Gaza-Israel border. While protesting for the right to return to lands they were displaced from, 223 Palestinians were killed by occupation forces from early 2018 to late 2019.
Another speaker highlighted civil disobedience. Yesterday, a group of protesters disrupted a ceremony celebrating the USNS Harvey Milk, alleging that the ship was headed to Gaza to support Israel. A Navy spokesperson denied that allegation to KTVU, stating that the ship is heading to Virginia. Protesters chained themselves to the gangway, and had to be removed by bolt cutters.
Other speakers discussed the connection between San Diego, Palestine, and the Philippines. In 2022, Israel joined RIMPAC, the international maritime warfare exercise.The US trained alongside Israel and the Philippines that year.
San Diego’s own Third Fleet hosted the planning conference for the next RIMPAC exercise.
That speaker also noted that San Diego is hosting arms expos this year. The 2024 Warrior Expo “brings end users, program managers, and procurement specialists together with industry-leading solutions for a unique networking and training opportunity in a secure environment.”
Healthcare workers spoke to the deliberate targeting of hospitals, and demanded a restoration of water, electricity, medical supplies, telecommunications, and aid.