ESCONDIDO (KGTV) — Thousands of people are expected to attend another No Kings Protest at Grape Day Park in Escondido this weekend to push back against President Donald Trump's policies and their local impact.
The upcoming rally follows a similar protest in June. Organizers said the event is a local response to ongoing immigration-related issues in the city, which I have covered previously.
"The visibility is important, the motivation is important, um, that your voice matters and it's important to keep showing up for, for other people who can't," Richard Cannon, an organizer, said.
In February, the mayor and City Council publicly addressed a contract allowing federal immigration agents to train at a city-owned firing range. Dozens of people rallied outside City Hall at the time, calling for an end to the contract between the Escondido Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
"Part of that's going to be, hey, you know, the mayor and Joe Garcia support bringing ICE and HSI into our neighborhood to do immigration enforcement activities. If you don't like that, make sure that you vote in November," Cannon said.
Organizers said they have been holding a number of anti-ICE protests locally and plan to continue.
"We've had a number of rallies already, um, anti-ICE rallies along Home Depot. Um, and people see that and they, they feel comforted knowing that there are actually people that are out there standing up for them and speaking out, and that motivates more people to, to speak their mind and to push back and to sort of acknowledge what rights they do have," Cannon said.
We reached out to the mayor for comment about the upcoming protest and have not heard back.
ICE provided a statement to ABC 10News regarding the protests.
"Our law enforcement officers face a 8,000% increase in death threats against them and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them," ICE said.
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