Voices echoed through the streets of downtown San Bernardino on May 1, 2026 as hundreds of Inland Empire (IE) residents took to the streets, marching past City Hall and the Department of Homeland security to demand an end to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and better working conditions. Organized by the Inland Empire Labor Council (IELC), the May Day protest drew a broad coalition of labor unions and community groups — from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights (CHIRLA) to Amazon Teamsters and the Pomona Day Labor center — uniting around worker protections, immigrant rights, rising costs of living and climate justice in a show of solidarity.
The demonstration was anchored by the IELC which represents over 90 unions and 400,000 members across the Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Executive Secretary-Treasurer Ricardo Cisneros noted that a key part of coordinating the May Day action was mobilizing that network into a unified turnout. Acknowledging the limits of a weekday protest due to working schedules, Cisneros emphasized that the responsibility now falls on those who attended to carry the message before the march, so that “next time around, this crowd can be much larger.”
Standing before City Hall, Julian, a day laborer from San Bernardino, recounted being detained by ICE while looking for work — an experience that echoed one of the protest’s central concerns: that both immigrant and non-immigrant workers are increasingly forced to navigate their livelihoods under the threats of raids and workplace enforcement.
Julia Vega, a member of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center who served as Julian’s translator, later emphasized that advocacy work like theirs is crucial amid widespread labor abuses across the IE. She pointed to the human cost of unsafe working environments, “leaving families torn apart. It’s leaving families without fathers, without husbands, without mothers.”…