***MONDAY: Rally and Press Conference Outside Federal Building in Cleveland**
Over 150 Latinos and their Families from Northeast Ohio Join in Solidarity with Painesville Father and Husband Facing Deportation
CLEVELAND, OH – Once again, a NE Ohio immigrant family is confronted with a barbaric decision made by Rebecca Adducci, Director of the Detroit Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that may force a peaceful, hard-working and loving father to leave his wife and sons. Luis Nicasio Padilla, of Painesville, is one of countless fathers and mothers in NE Ohio’s vibrant Hispanic community who are being placed into deportation proceedings and ordered summarily removed, with no consideration of their families, children, strong ties, and contributions. Time and again Detroit ICE administration officials ignore Department of Homeland Security guidance in their insatiable zeal to deport people to keep up quotas. On Monday, June 9th, at 11 am members of the northeast Ohio Latino community and their allies will stage a protest outside of the Cleveland ICE office to tell Ms. Adducci it’s time to start exercising prosecutorial discretion.
The Morton memo says that immigrants in deportation proceedings can remain in the U.S. if they are good people with strong ties in the United States. The memo lists numerous criteria ICE officers are supposed to consider. However, this memo is consistently ignored by the Detroit Field office, which oversees Cleveland. As a result, families like that of Luis Nicasio Padilla (the father of 3 U.S. citizen sons and husband of a lawful permanent resident) live in a constant state of fear and stress.
Nicasio Padilla’s Stay of Removal was denied this week, and he has to report to the ICE office on Monday at 11am for one of his twice-weekly “check-ins.” After living in the U.S. for 10 years, buying a home with his wife, raising their children, paying taxes, and working his way toward a green card, Adducci’s decision came as a shock to Luis and his family. Members of the northeast Ohio immigrant community and their allies are tired of the hard-working Latino immigrant community being targeted for deportation and put through the ringer. They are rallying around Luis, a beloved community leader who has enriched NE Ohio as a professional mariachi musician playing all over the state. His children are dancers in a Mexican folkloric dance troupe, and his wife is a graduate of Cleveland State University, who currently works in a factory peeling and chopping onions in order to support the family.
The message is clear, the Latino community will no longer stand for extremism in our local government ICE offices that targets Latino families and disregards basic human dignity and human rights. They are turning to the media demand that superiors in Washington step in.
WHO: Over 150 Latinos and their families from Cleveland, Lorain, Akron and Painesville, student groups, mariachis and folkloric dancers in solidarity with Luis, representing several parts of NE Ohio.
WHAT: Rally and press conference to protest barbaric, anti-family deportation decisions
WHEN: Monday, June 9th, at 11 am
WHERE: At the Free Stamp in downtown Cleveland, near the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building
VISUALS: The following folkloric dance troupes will demonstrate their solidarity and be present in full costume–Danza Azteca Tonanzin, from Lorian; Grupo Folklorico Hola, from Painesville, and Mexican folkloric group from Akron, Ohio. Also, Mariachi Santa Cecilia, among others.
