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Immigration Reform Advocates Protest Deportations

November 19th, 2013

Immigration reform advocates rallied Tuesday outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Downtown Atlanta. They called on President Obama to end deportations of undocumented immigrants. Federal officials arrested 15 of them.

Hear the audio version of this story.

Some protestors locked themselves to a gate on ICE property. Federal officials unlocked and arrested them.

President Obama last week issued a directive stopping deportations for relatives of active military members. But protestors, like Marisa Franco with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the president should stop all deportations.

“The president of this country has the ability and the authority to make something change with the situation of deportations in this country,” Franco told the crowd. “Because he talks real pretty when he’s trying to get our votes. But now, now that it’s time to act, he hasn’t taken the right action.”

Franco says most of the arrested protestors are undocumented. But she took a wait-and-see approach regarding their fate.

“We shouldn’t be concerned if we actually believe Obama and ICE for its word, that they’re not deporting people who are not threats to public safety,” she said. “So, we’re gonna see. We’re gonna see.”

So far, the Obama Administration has deported more undocumented immigrants annually than the Bush Administration. President Obama’s campaign platform included immigration reform, but he hasn’t delivered. Some Democrats blame Republicans, but protestors like Paulina Helm-Hernandez, aren’t satisfied.

“We know that the policy of deportation and detention is actually at the feet of President Obama,” Helm-Hernandez said. “ He has been the one who has refused to halt deportations. He has been the one who has given our community away, really, to these kind of detention centers and to this super-aggressive deportation policy.”

ICE issued the following statement:

“ICE fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion within the confines of the law. While we continue to work with Congress to enact reform, ICE remains committed to sensible, effective immigration enforcement that focuses first on convicted criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety.”

Federal Protective Services, which arrested the protestors, issued this statement:

“The Federal Protective Service (FPS) protects more than 9,000 federal buildings and 1.4 million federal employees and visitors who occupy them throughout the country every day. FPS is committed to carrying out this mission in a manner that protects the public’s civil rights and civil liberties including freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest.”