California law forbids ICE from making arrests at courthouses. Officers are showing up anyway.10/9/2025
by Nigel Duara, CalMatters. This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. In summary A California law bans immigration enforcement at courthouses. ICE under the Trump administration is detaining people there, anyway, arguing it’s a safe place to apprehend someone.  The Fresno County Courthouse on Sept. 17, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.  A line of federal immigration agents and protesters stand-off near the Glass House Farms facility outside Camarillo on July 10, 2025. Protesters gathered after federal agents conducted an immigration raid earlier in the day. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local By Michael Lozano , CalMatters.
They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm. The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations. Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case. “It was a beautiful showing of solidarity for the people of Gaza.” That’s how Abbey Springer, captain of Team SURJ Bay Area, described the 2025 Ride for Palestine held Sunday, July 20. “It was so incredible to see hundreds of people riding for Palestine and in doing so, raise over $450,000 for MECA!” The Ride for Palestine is the annual fundraiser for the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), to support its programs for children and their families in Palestine and the Middle East. Based in Berkeley, California, MECA has, since 1988, sent more than $42 million in aid to children in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon.  Some members of Team SURJ gather before the Ride for a photo taken by a Jewish Voice for Peace team member. Many things have changed since we last published a set of rapid response resources in 2018. We want our community to have up-to-date information on how to Show Up for Racial Justice with authoritarianism rising around us.
By Felicia Gustin It’s one of the largest county jails in the United States and larger than most California prisons. Santa Rita Jail, located in Dublin, California, also has one of the highest rates of in-custody deaths for county jails in the state. In 2017, one such victim, 23-year-old father Dujuan Armstrong, was only meant to serve a weekend at Santa Rita, but he never came home, killed by sheriff deputies while in custody. In Dujuan’s honor, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), a Black-led Oakland-based coalition, began providing material support to folks being released from the jail as “a small but meaningful way to address the harm caused by incarceration in our community.”  Tables with free food and drinks and bins with free clothing set up on a Friday night in front of the Santa Rita Jail sign. Photo by Mack Boyle. SURJ Bay Area joins 500+ congregations and communities in pledge to become “Apartheid-Free”3/21/2025
Today, March 21st 2025, SURJ Bay Area joins with communities all over the world to mark an important milestone: over 500 congregations and organizations have taken a pledge declaring themselves “apartheid-free.” Pledge signers commit to cut ties with Israel’s apartheid regime against Palestinians and to oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression. These 500+ groups represent hundreds of thousands of constituents and include congregations, faith communities, solidarity organizations, non-profits, student organizations, veterans’ groups, businesses, and even municipalities. A map and full list of apartheid-free communities can be found here.
Mass Deportation Is Unjust and Harmful to All Americans by Regie Stites  People hold up handmade signs reading, "Immigrants Make America Great" and "NO HATE NO FEAR / Refugees are welcome here!" - Photo by Nitish Meena In her first press conference, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, repeated a vicious lie to justify one of the cruelest presidential priorities in American history. She said millions of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. must be deported because they have all broken U.S. law and are therefore “criminals.” This is a lie.
An article on the press conference in Axios pointed out that violation of U.S. immigration policies is a civil, not a criminal offense. According to the article: “There is no law making it a crime to live in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant.” Words and photos by Anna Blackshaw As the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, violence in the West Bank has been escalating to near record levels. According to a report by the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA), 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced by Israeli forces in just the first two months of 2025, making this the largest displacement of civilians since 1967. These forced removals occur alongside the highest rates of Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank in over two decades. Palestinian shepherds are attacked while grazing their sheep, families are chased out of their homes at gunpoint, homes and cars are set on fire, sewage is dumped into wells and springs, olive trees are burned down (at a rate of 25,000 trees in 2024 alone), and rampages through villages keep families on alert day and night.  The olive tree is a powerful symbol of peace, resilience, and steadfastness for Palestinians. Its deep roots and ability to withstand harsh conditions reflect the endurance and perseverance of the Palestinian people. Cultivated in the region for thousands of years, olive trees are deeply embedded in Palestinian traditions, cuisine, and daily life, serving as a vital connection to heritage, resistance and identity. by Micki Luckey Microsoft has been a major partner in the genocide in Palestine, confirmed by documents leaked on January 23 that show it stepped up its supply of cloud support and AI for the Israeli military. U.S. tech’s support for Israel is nothing new. But a new application of tech came to public attention on September 17 last year with the simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers owned by Hezbollah fighters. They and the explosions in hand-held radios the next day were targeted by Israeli intelligence to decapitate Hezbollah, the only organized force that had defeated them in battle. Deployment of exploding personal communication devices can only be described as an act of terrorism.  AI generated photograph of a pager surrounded by flaming debris. By Paul Kivel In her book Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism Victoria Clark writes, “One has to look back as far as the Crusades to find another example of such a large group of outsiders involving themselves in the Middle East on a religious pretext….” Clark is describing the history and power of Christian Zionism. In the last two centuries, the creation of and continuing support for the state of Israel was substantially determined by ruling class Christian Zionists, first in Britain and more recently in the U.S. Today Christian Zionists lobby for pro-Israeli expansionist policies, provide a tremendous amount of direct financial support to Israel, coordinate a large pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian constituency, and give direct aid to illegal settlements in the West Bank.  Crusaders of the First Crusade (11th Century) on their way to Jerusalem are portrayed in a stained-glass window located in the cathedral of Brussels that was created in 1866. iStock photo by Jorisvo. |
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