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Seven Undocumented Immigrants Arrested At White House Protesting Deportations

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This morning, seven undocumented immigrants were arrested in front of the White House during a protest of the Obama administration’s deportation policy. Here’s the message the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which organized today’s protest, sent out before the action began:

Last night the President told Telemundo that reducing deportations isn’t an option but we disagree.

Stopping deportations is the only option he has to begin to correct just some of the damage his immigration policies have caused and to push forward any chances for immigration reform.

We traveled to DC because we’ve seen too much suffering in our communities to allow it to continue, our own families have been torn apart, and some of us are already facing deportation.

We can’t afford to wait for the possibility of reform when 1,200 of us are being deported every day. We want to see change and we’re here to demand it. And we shouldn’t be told to when it’s within the President’s power to grant us relief with the stroke of a pen today.

What would you do if your nephew was deported because he drove his sister to school, if you were picked up by border patrol on your way home from work, if you hadn’t seen your own son in seven years? What would you do if they came for your loved ones?

You wouldn’t just wait and neither will we.  The longer Congress plays game with our lives and the President delays our relief, the louder our communities will get.

We say #Not1More deportation!

Tomas, Narciso, Lupe, Maria Cruz, Francisco, Rodrigo, and Alfredo

Very powerful. If the House would follow the Senate’s lead and pass reform legislation, these deportations could end.  In the meantime, the President could and should use existing prosecutorial discretion to prevent the deportations of those who would become legalized when the legislation passes.

And, here’s some of the coverage from Twitter with some pictures from the scene: