Activists demand US border patrol end immigration raids

For the third time this year, immigration activists today staged a protest outside the US Border Patrol headquarters in Riverside. KPCC’S Steven Cuevas says the activists claim agents are unfairly targeting suspected illegal immigrants.

Steven Cuevas: Last month, Border Patrol agents inspected a Riverside Transit bus. The Border Patrol says the agents were chasing a suspect. They didn’t find the man they were looking for, but they did arrest five passengers &ndash all of them suspected illegal immigrants.

Emilio Amaya: We noticed an increase in border patrol raids, time and time again, violations of human rights, violations of civil rights.

Cuevas: Emilio Amaya is with the Justice for Immigrants Coalition. He claims says the raid on a public bus is part of a larger pattern.

Amaya: We know this office, the office of Border Patrol, set up a quota system that allows them to go after any Latino. We demand a stop to these types of practices!

Cuevas: Some agents from the Riverside Border Patrol office have accused a commander of penalizing them if they don’t make at least 150 arrests a month. The agency denies the allegations.

Raymond Herrera: They claim that they’re being violated, persecuted in the streets. But I’ll have you know in America, we have the rule of law.

Cuevas: Anti-illegal immigration activists like Raymond Herrera of the Minuteman Project welcome any increased enforcement.

Herrera: I think everyone can look out their front door and see we don’t have a melting pot anymore. We have “Hispania” out there. And these people are rude, contentious and vile. They’re racist and the American people have had enough.

Cuevas: Immigration activists are calling for a federal investigation of the Riverside Border Patrol station.