Thousands of people filled Alameda Park for the “No Kings” protest against President Trump Saturday, in a massive show of support for immigrants, working-class people and health care rights.
Julissa Peña, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Immigrant Legal Defense Center, said all immigrants have called the United States their home, and are united by courage and the dream of belonging.
“They are our neighbors, our colleagues, our friends, the very heart of who we are as a community,” Peña said. “Yet, they are hunted for the color of their skin, treated as if their lives have no worth.”
Peña was one of several speakers on stage at Alameda Park. She sparked loud ovations and cheers from the thousands watching.
“Defending immigrant rights is not an act of charity, it’s an act of solidarity,” Peña said. “When we fight for immigrants, we fight for truth, justice and democracy itself. A government that can strip rights from one group can and will strip them from all of us.”
More than 7 million people reportedly protested at No Kings events throughout the nation on Saturday. The Santa Barbara event was put on by Indivisible Santa Barbara. Thousands of people carried original hand-made signs, with a variety of insults directed at Trump. Event organizers estimated 13,000 people attended.
Some of the signs said, “Rise Against Evil,” or “No Cons, No Clowns,” and “Hands Off Our Constitution.”
The rally began at noon, lasted an hour, and then the crowd marched on Anacapa Street, led by police on motorcycles from the Santa Barbara Police Department to De la Guerra Plaza, where the event ended. A few thousand people then marched up State Street.
Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805UndocuFund, also fired up the crowd. Her group assists immigrants and their families and offers assistance after ICE detainments. She said the group does the work with no help from the state or federal government, but from the power of individual donations.
“So today and every day we organize, we resist and we fight back until we liberate all people from these unjust systems of oppression,” Hernandez said.
She urged people to look deeper into themselves and understand the urgency of the moment.
“Our fight is your fight because systems that cage migrants are the same systems that will deny your health care, housing, dignity for all working people,” Hernandez said. “So, when justice calls, will you use your voice, your privilege, your power to stand on the right side of history.”
Several past and present elected officials were in attendance, including former state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Goleta City Councilmembers Stuart Kasdin, Luz Reyes-Martin and Jennifer Smith, and Santa Barbara City Councilmembers Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Sneddon.
On stage, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, and Assemblymember Gregg Hart addressed the crowd.
Carbajal said the Trump Administration is dismantling democracy, human rights and “human decency.”
“We don’t have kings in this country,” Carbajal said. “That’s a bunch of BS. This nation was founded on the idea that power belongs to the people, not the privileged few, not the billionaires, and not one person in the White House.”
Hart said real leaders invest in working families, education, childcare, housing and the environment.
“We’re taking our future back,” Hart said. “We are saying no more to corruption, no more to corporate control, no more to leaders who forget who they work for. Government should serve the people who built this country, not the corporations who exploit it.”
Jenna Tosh, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Central Coast Action Fund, said the past eight months have been “devastating.”
“We have watched this administration consolidate power and remake the federal government into something I don’t recognize,” Tosh said.
She said the president’s cuts to Planned Parenthood shred care for birth control, cancer screening, sexually transmitted infection and treatment, vaccinations, gender-affirming care and abortion care.
“That’s a direct attack on millions of patients who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for a wide range of health services,” Tosh said. “We know who is most impacted by these attacks. Women, immigrants, people who are undocumented, people who are Black and Latino, young people, people who live in rural communities, people with low incomes, people who are LGBTQ, in particular trans and non-binary people.”
