By: Ashmar Mandou
A group of protestors outside the Hilton Hotel Wednesday morning were arrested for blocking rush hour during a rally organized to criticize the President’s lax approach to immigration reform.
Protestors, representing Undocumented Illinois, Immigrant Youth Justice League, Latino Youth Action League of DuPage, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, urged the President to stop deportations and pass a law that will keep families together.
“Plans and promises of immigration reform are not enough. While Congress is talking about passing immigration reform, I’m scared that my own parents will be one of the 1,100 who are deported every day,” said undocumented protestor Stephanie Camba, 22, who was arrested Wednesday morning. “The President can’t be a bystander in reform when he could stop our suffering and stop deportations with the stroke of a pen.”
In 2012 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced record-breaking deportations of over 409,000 people in the last year. In the past months, there was confirmation that DHS has focused on enforcement to meet an annual 400,000 person quota, and that a majority of the one million people deported in the last four years had no criminal record.
“It doesn’t make sense to keep deporting people that could qualify for immigration reform. We want our families to still be here when a path to citizenship opens. We are calling on the President to give our parents and everyone in our community the same relief he gave us,” said protestor Ireri Unzueta Carrasco, 26, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Unzueta was also arrested Wednesday morning. Twelve in total were arrested during Wednesday morning’s rally.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization out of committee this week. The bill is now headed to the Senate floor for a vote in the next two weeks. In the meantime, advocates will continue to demand that the President suspend deportations. Wednesday’s rally was organized by the Immigrant Youth Justice League, Undocumented Illinois, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
