Protestors Claim Immigrants Targeted by Baldwin Park Police at DUI Checkpoint

About 150 people spoke and marched in Baldwin Park, temporarily shutting down Pacific Avenue in front of the Civic Center in protest of what they said was unfair treatment of illegal immigrants by police

Residents and local activists came out after a DUI checkpoint held overnight Saturday into Sunday at two locations resulted in the detainment of 42, many of them undocumented immigrants who were driving without a license. Only five were arrested for DUI offenses, said Capt. David Reynoso.

Residents claim it was unfair of police to take so many into custody for the misdemeanor offense of driving without a license.

Activists spoke for about 20 minutes, before the group of protestors started marching in a square around Pacific Avenue. The protest eventually caused police to shut down Pacific at Ramona and Bogart.

Among the protestors were people who had been detained in the checkpoint. They said that when asked for identification, they provided their official identifcation from their native country.

However, while the department may have accepted that identification in the past, it no longer is able to accept it, Reynoso said.

“The local court that we file our cases with is no longer accepting that form of identification for cite and release,” he said.