11 immigrants held after protest against deportations

BY A STAFF WRITER

BROADVIEW (IL) — Eleven immigrant rights activists were arrested for forming a human chain and blocking an intersection near the Broadview Detention Center last week.

Crowds were chanting “Not one more,” and “Two Million Too Many” referring to the President’s record deportations and their demand that he act immediately to stop them.

“If the President will not stop deportations, then we will,” said Karen Picazo, whose mother is undocumented and lives under the threat of deportation.

“The President continues to deport our families, his administration has gotten us two million deportations. We need immediate action from the President and it needs to start with administrative relief and a stop to deportations now.”

The latest actions are part of the national ‘Not-1-more-deportation’ campaign calling on President Obama to put a stop to deportations with more than 80 events occurring over the weekend nationwide.

By the middle of April, President Obama will have carried out two million deportations, more than any other President.

The group asserts that President Obama doesn’t have to wait for Congress to use his executive authority to stop the suffering. He could expand the deferred action program he created for immigrant youth and suspend deportations immediately.

Communities across the country are organizing events under the slogan “Two Million, Too Many” to demand that the President stop deportations.

Organizations that participated in the latest demonstration were Undocumented Illinois, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Latino Policy Forum, National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities and National Day Laborer Organizing Network.students in India