Our Stories
Dozens of brutality cases emerged, leading to a Congressional hearing in 1972, called by Congressman Edward Roybal. Baca’s media delivery provided a voice that labeled the U.S. Border Patrol as “Gestapo-like,” the “KKK of the Mexican people,” and immigration policies as the “slave issue of the 20th century.” The CCR mobilized working-class Latinos from Baca’s print shop in National City. On October 29, 1977, the CCR organized a 10,000-person protest of the KKK’s planned apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the international border. The CCR also organized protests against President Jimmy Carter’s plan to increase the number of Border Patrol agents, a reinstatement of a temporary workers program, and the fortification of major crossings along the international border.
Amnesty Program Emerges The 1980 Chicano National Conference on Immigration drew over 1,000 activists from across the U.S. to expose the violence associated with U.S. immigration policies, local policing, and the attendant hysteria. The conference produced several resolutions, among them a call for the abolishment of both the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and U.S. Border Patrol, unlimited quotas for migrants, the rights for Mexicans to freely cross the U.S.-Mexico border based on their labor and financial contributions to the U.S. economy, and compliance with disregarded terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico. A Chicano National Immigration Conference Tribunal took place in San Diego on April 11, 1981, to document the violence against Chicano U.S. citizens and Mexican immigrants resulting from militarized immigration policies. The 1,000-page document was sent to the Presidents of Mexico (Portillo) and the U.S. (Reagan), citing over 60 cases of violence. Two years later, 3,000 people protested the controversial Simpson–Mazzoli immigration bill with a “17-Mile Walk for Rights” from San Diego to the international border at San Ysidro.
Such protests led to the 1986 passage of the largest amnesty bill of that time that led to the legalization of more than two million people, mostly Mexican, and Central and Latin American immigrant workers. However, it further militarized the U.S.-Mexico border and continued the notion that some migrants were “illegal” and required deportation—as well as the accompanying human rights violations that enforcement entailed. “Raza Sí, Migra No!” and #AbolishICE continues today as the rallying cry of the modern immigrant rights movement.
Unity March – Anti-KKK rally at the International border – October 29, 1977 (Photo courtesy Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego)
Chicano National Immigration Tribunal – April 11, 1981 (Photo courtesy Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego)
Protest Poster (Photo courtesy Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 4 – The Rise & Legacy of the Chicano Movement
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