CHICAGO - On the morning of the President’s return, 12 Chicagoans chained themselves together using PVC pipe this morning in downtown Chicago. They're demanding President Obama suspend all deportations immediately. The group, all illegal immigrants or members of social and racial justice group National People’s Action, has chained themselves in a circle surrounding a massive banner that reads “400,000, Not1More Deportation."
Not1More has become a rallying cry for the leftist advocates upset by the President's record breaking use of forced deportations. The group is outside the Chicago Hilton, the hotel where the President is slated to speak this evening for a fundraiser.
"Today, we are risking arrest to end the suffering of immigrant families across country,” said Veronica Castro, Immigration Campaigner for National People’s Action. “The Obama administration is on course to meet its quota of tearing 400,000 people from their families every year. Right now, President Obama has the opportunity to end our suffering and reinforce his legacy as a leader who took bold steps to fix our broken immigration system by suspending deportations as Congress seeks a reform."
President Obama is on track to tear nearly 2 million families apart by the end of his second term, and protesters today are demanding he suspend those deportations until a comprehensive immigration bill that honors family unity passes through Congress.
“As Congress seeks reform that would legalize our families, the President keeps going in the opposite direction. He is on track to deport 400,000 of us by the end of the year,” explains undocumented protestor Miguel Martinez of the Immigrant Youth Justice League. “He can’t be a bystander in reform. The President could stop our suffering and stop deportations with the stroke of a pen.”
Chicago student and protester Maria Gonzalez, a recipient of the President’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), added “It doesn’t make sense to keep deporting people when we could have reform within a few months. We want our families to still be here if a path to citizenship opens. We’re calling on the President to give our parents the same relief he gave us.”
National People’s Action is fighting nationally for an immigration bill that puts family unity first, includes a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in America, and does not include corporate giveaways to groups like the private prison industry.
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