Immigrant rights groups delivered a massive 136,000 petition signatures to the White House yesterday calling on President Obama to stop the ICE raids targeting vulnerable Central American refugees for deportation.
Join us today to deliver the signatures of 136,000 Americans asking POTUS to #StopTheRaids! #FamiliesFightBack pic.twitter.com/hTGA5L5PHX
— RI4A (@RI4A) February 2, 2016
We’re glad to be here with @Somos_CASA, @SEIRN,@nakasec, @CPDAction, @CWS_IRP and many more to deliver the #StopTheRaids petition!
— RI4A (@RI4A) February 2, 2016
Faith & immigrants rights leaders ready to deliver over 130,000 petition signatures telling @POTUS to #StoptheRaids! pic.twitter.com/gvzdBRSnmD — CWS Immigration (@CWS_IRP) February 2, 2016
.@StanleyRea praying for an end to raids & for @POTUS to have compassion for families seeking safety. #stoptheraids pic.twitter.com/zC2OQPc3tG — CWS Immigration (@CWS_IRP) February 2, 2016
Alma Couverthie of @Somos_CASA starts the program, ready to deliver more than 136,000 signatures to #StopTheRaids pic.twitter.com/E8QI7vXD9I
— RI4A (@RI4A) February 2, 2016
“@POTUS we are tired of deportations — stop separating our families!” Sandra, an asylum seeker, shares her story pic.twitter.com/DPWVoGww2y
— CWS Immigration (@CWS_IRP) February 2, 2016
Sandra from @somos_casa: I’m from Central America. I came with my son fleeing hunger and violence. #stoptheraids pic.twitter.com/WaIC1N3cZW — CPD Action (@CPDAction) February 2, 2016
.@StanleyRea on families impacted by raids – “This system has failed them by jailing them.” #stoptheraids pic.twitter.com/l9suwN9MDk — CWS Immigration (@CWS_IRP) February 2, 2016
.@POTUS — faith & immigrants rights leaders are asking you to act with compassion and #StoptheRaids! pic.twitter.com/UW8HtBELae
— CWS Immigration (@CWS_IRP) February 2, 2016
According to the latest updates, some 77 of the refugees apprehended since the start of the raids earlier this year have been deported back to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, the latter of which is now leading as the new murder capital of the world.
While the Administration has recently insisted that these immigration operations are not raids, widespread fear has already terrorized immigrant communities, with some reports indicating school attendance rates have dropped as families scramble to stay together.
Esther Lee of ThinkProgress writes:
“Hey Obama, don’t deport my mama,” the activists shouted outside the White House. Among their petition demands, the group is calling on the Obama administration to provide asylum-seeking families with Temporary Protected Status, a form of temporary immigration relief that would allow some people to stay in the country legally.
“ICE’s decision to target asylum-seeking children and families is a terrible mistake that only instills fear in all our communities,” Quyen Dinh, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), one of organizations involved in organizing the event, said. “We urge the administration to halt inhumane enforcement policies targeting immigrant and refugee families seeking protection within our borders.”
Sandra, a Central American woman who crossed the southern U.S. border at the end of 2013 with her four-year-old son, told her own story at the rally of leaving behind a dangerous home country.
“We came to flee hunger, poverty, and kidnappings from my own family,” Sandra said.
Sandra is “very afraid” that “the savage ICE agents will come knocking on the door and take me and my son back to a country that we come fleeing from,” even though they could be in “great danger” if they’re deported.
“I do not want my life and my son’s life to end up in a casket,” she said. “I don’t want to be assassinated like it has happened with other family members.”
