Remarks of Larry Day, the Education Co-Chair of ACT UP/LA, on the Resistance Protest at Mardi Gras Motel INS Detention Center.
Those of us gathered here today are here to speak with one voice: to say “enough” --to say “basta”--to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, “basta” to the Simpson-Rodino Act, and “basta” to the cadre of California politicians (Deukmejian, Dornan, Doolittle, Wilson) who regularly join the anti-immigrant chorus on key political issues. We are here to demand justice for our immigrant brothers and sisters, especially those who are children, and who are often separated from their parents. We are here to call attention to the living conditions in a converted-motel detention facility that now houses 200 people. We are here to ask what goes on behind the reflective coating on all first-floor windows.
Over the past few years, the AIDS-affected and the immigration-affected communities have witnessed similar political phenomena: Traditionally liberal and supportive legislators are shying away from our “hot potato” issues.
Within a week of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the Senate approved the repressive “Helms amendment” by a vote of 94 to 2, with liberals mumbling that the amendment would be moderated in the House-Senate conference committee anyway. In this year’s elections, California legislators are running scared on “the AIDS issue.”
Similarly, Simpson-Rodino was shaped by so many compromises that the result was nearer a Frankenstein monster than a bill fashioned using rational thought. Many “liberal” legislators supposedly “held their noses” when they voted in favor of the final version of the Act.
These were bitter but important lessons to the AIDS-affected and immigration-affected communities. We are effectively back to Square 1 in terms of our political clout on “sensitive” issues.
This recent history has taught us that we are again in need of building and strengthening our coalitions so that our key issues are never again swept under the political rug. That is why we from ACT UP/LA are here today.
Citation: “Resistencia Protest at Mardi Gras Motel INS Detention Center.” ACT UP/LA. March 19, 1988.