SAN BERNARDINO - Chanting "undocumented and unafraid," seven illegal immigrants were arrested Tuesday afternoon for blocking traffic and disobeying police orders during a protest against immigration policies.

About 125 people yelled and held signs for three hours on the sidewalks by San Bernardino Valley College. And for just over an hour, eight of them sat at the intersection of South Mount Vernon Avenue and Esperanza Street, forcing several city buses and many cars to turn around.

"You have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws," chanted the crowd, after San Bernardino City Police Department officers warned in English and Spanish that anyone blocking the street as part of the protest would be arrested. Sheriff's

Martha Vasquez, 22, of Highland Park sits with other demonstrators to block the intersection of South Mt. Vernon Avenue and Esperanza Street in San Bernardino on Tuesday. (Gabriel Luis Acosta/Staff Photographer)
deputies also privately told protest organizers that being arrested as an illegal immigrant could lead to deportation.

Protesting from the sidewalk was legal, officers said.

Just before 4 p.m, police arrested seven protesters, who cooperated as they were put into squad cars on the scene.

An eighth protester, Alma de Jesus, 28, moved to the sidewalk at the last minute because she said her family would have no one to care for them if she was deported.

"Students of this campus should not have to live in fear," said Jesus Barrios, a Cal State San Bernardino student and one of the arrested protesters. "We have to take a stand and fight back against these policies."

Among several policies the group protested against was the federal 287(g) program that requires participating counties - including San Bernardino - to check the immigration status of anyone in police custody and sometimes to deport them.

"It's not always for civil disobedience, but if you roll a stop sign (you can be deported)," said Mohammad Abdollahi, a national organizer who attended the event. "That's what these students were fighting against, these policies that are criminalizing our communities, all just to make a buck."

That makes immigrants afraid to contact police for help and vulnerable to abuse, he said.

The protesters came from throughout California, with at least one of those arrested from Oakland.

They were booked at West Valley Detention Center for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, said Lt. Gwendolyn Waters, a police spokeswoman.

Waters said those charged with such misdemeanors are usually released within a day, unless a status check turns up something like a warrant or immigration violation.

Some protesters said it was "shameful" that police arrested anyone, while others said the officers' actions were fair - it's just the next step, where deportation is possible, that they consider inhumane.

"They've been nice," said Hector Guzman, a Valley College student. "It's just a way to draw attention to how horrible the system is."
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