Mountain View Vigil Protests Immigration Camps

On a warm Friday night, residents of Mountain View and nearby towns took part in a Lights for Liberty vigil, as part of worldwide protests against detention camps at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just as they did almost exactly one year earlier, demonstrators waved signs calling out the Trump administration for inhumane conditions in detention camps, mass deportation and deaths at the border.

Starting at the intersection of El Camino Real and Castro Street at 7:30 p.m., people lined the sidewalks of the busy intersection. They planned to end their demonstration with a candlelight vigil featuring a mass reading of the lines of poetry inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty from 8:45-9 p.m., but protesters eager to be seen by passing traffic continued to rally long after the scheduled close.

Ida Rose Sylvester, one of the organizers of Together We Will Palo Alto/Mountain View, said on a hopeful note that, "Over the last 2.5 years, energy has shifted from sad and chaotic, to very powerful, focused and truly ready for change." Together We Will, the national organization, was born from the upswell of political activism following the 2016 election. Since then hundreds of thousands have felt the call to action across the country.