CALIFORNIA: FAMILIES PROTEST RAIDS The Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, California issued a June 5 news release decrying "abusive INS raids" in the town of San Juan Capistrano. Consul Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro said the Border Patrol had stepped up operations there in the past two weeks, picking up about 40 people, including about 15 on June 4. Haro said his office was looking into claims that immigrants were detained outside churches, schools and stores.

About 40 students and some parents chanted and carried signs at an after-school protest against the raids on June 5 in San Juan Capistrano. Later that day some 200 Capistrano residents attended a public meeting organized by the Mexican consulate. Local residents said Border Patrol agents had arrested family members as they walked children to school, and outside laundromats and supermarkets. Some parents said their children were refusing to attend school, fearing arrest by the Border Patrol. Raquel Olamendi, spokesperson for the Mexican consulate, said officials had received reports of as many as 20 children taken to Orangewood Children's Center, a county children's home, after their parents were deported. [Los Angeles Times 6/6/03; Orange County Register (CA) 6/6/03]

In nearby San Diego, Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) said his group received 45 complaints in May about Border Patrol raids of local homes and public transit. Border Patrol spokesperson Raul Villarreal said the operations are part of a national strategy to prevent terrorist acts. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/2/03]