FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE // excuse cross-postingMay 16, 2014Contact: Salvador Sarmiento, sgsarmiento@ndlon.org, (202) 746-2099 150+ Civil and Immigrants Rights Organizations Call onDHS Sec. Johnson to End Use of ICE Holds As the President moves to “reboot” Se Communities,advocates demand complete end to key component of the program May 16, 2014, Washington, DC — A day after…
Best Way to Move Bill Forward is to Keep Families Together Who Are Working Toward Reform
Congressman Gutierrez as well as Reps. Jackson-Lee, Schakowsky, Titus, Clarke, Cardenas and others join fathers facing deportation and representatives of more than 500 immigrant rights organizations to deliver a letter asking President Obama to suspend deportations for those who would be entitled to eventual citizenship in the immigration bill being currently debated.
The press conference with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Gamaliel, Casa in Action, United We Dream, MALDEF, and the AFL-CIO comes the day after the President brought together immigration reform advocates at the White House to discuss the way forward.
”We call on the President to relieve the suffering of families by ceasing deportations as Congress debates reform,” said Oscar Alfaro. Oscar, who had previously received a stay of deportation, was recently denied a renewal. Oscar and his family have battled tirelessly in support of the President’s vision for immigration reform yet may be deported in these next few weeks if the President doesn’t take action to protect him and the 1,100 others who are deported on a daily basis from the United States
(Los Angeles) In response to the Associated Press article published today, Pablo Alvarado, Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network commented,
“The alarming deportation statistics released in the AP report are a matter for national concern. The arbitrary enforcement of unjust immigration laws will widen the President’s credibility gap among Latinos. The President should either hold ICE accountable for belying his campaign promises, or the President himself should be held accountable. As the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has requested, the Se Communities program should be immediately suspended until the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General can complete her report. At this rate, President Obama’s S-Comm policy will go down in history with Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback.” Both have the same pernicious consequences, but one has a more clever name.”
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network has led efforts against the Se Communities program; litigating in federal court to uncover the truth under the Freedom of Information Act and coordinating the Turning the Tide campaign whose local participants have led to the states of Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts opting-out of the troubling programs because of the dragnet effect reported by the AP today.
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