Children March to End Deportations in the Twin Cities
Twin Cities Daily Planet, News Report, Dan Gordon, Posted: Jul 30, 2007
Editor's Note: A recent arrest of an activist mother of four on immigration charges inspired a children’s protest.
ST. PAUL – Children took their protest to who they hoped would be a sympathetic state senator this week, part of a “children’s march” organized by local churches and immigrant rights’ groups to raise awareness of the issue of Minnesota families torn apart by immigration raids.
Senator Norm Coleman’s house in St. Paul has been host to many protests over the years. Sunday afternoon, however, was possibly the first time that the protesters making fiery speeches on his front lawn were mainly elementary school children.
Gabriella Diaz, 8, is already a veteran activist, having attended several immigrants’ rights marches in the past. “I feel good being here today, because I think kids need their parents,” she says. “I get scared when I hear about other kid’s parents being taken away.”
The crowd included several children who recently had parents taken from them in immigration raids, including Joanna Avendano, 14, of St. Michael whose mother Sarah was arrested June 27. With chants of “The children united will never be defeated!” in both English and Spanish, the youth, their families, and supporters led a crowd of around 200 down the sidewalks of Grand Avenue to Coleman’s house pushing strollers and carrying balloons, banners, and pictures of family members that had been deported.
“We targeted Senator Coleman because we were told that several years ago he mobilized to help prevent an African immigrant’s deportation order,” says Alondra Espejel of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network. “We also wanted to build a relationship with him to get him to understand the Latino community better.”
The catalyst for the march was the arrest of community activist Juana Reyes, says organizer Irineo Mojica of St. Stephen’s Church. Mojica worked closely with Juana on immigration reform issues, participating together in the May march to the state capitol following a 10-day religious fast for federal immigration reform. Reyes was arrested earlier this month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers for having overstayed her 1993 visa and is currently being detained in Elk River, MN while awaiting deportation to Mexico.
Unlike many of the recent immigration cases that have attracted media attention in the Twin Cities, Juana was neither picked up in one of the increasing worksite enforcement raids, nor as part of a criminal investigation. Some feel that her arrest was politically motivated—a result of her high profile immigrant activism. In a news profile on the participants of May’s fast, she was the only member to give her real name and publicly announce her undocumented status.
“It’s weird—she’s lived in this country 14 years and never had a problem until now,” says one of her daughters. “She’s been working under her real name; she hasn’t been hiding from anybody… She deserves a second chance.”
But ICE spokesperson Tim Counts says her arrest was standard procedure.
“Juana Reyes was arrested because she had been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge back in 1996 and had defied the judge’s orders by remaining in the country. It’s a priority for ICE to locate and remove the estimated 630,000 fugitives remaining in the United States. She’s one of the fugitives.”
Fugitive or not, the effects of this type of separation are most noticeable in the children they leave behind. The Pew Center for Hispanic Research estimates that three million children in the United States have at least one parent without citizenship. Juana’s daughter Betty is one of them. The youngest of four, her siblings have noticed a change in her behavior they attribute to the arrest of her mother.
“She used to run to the doorbell whenever it rang, no matter who it was,” says an older sister. “Now she tells us, “Be careful—don’t let them in. She wakes up at night now whenever there’s the smallest noise.”
As the Reyes family wades through legal channels in an attempt to free Juana, community members vow to carry their campaign for immigration reform into the schools, churches, and streets.
“We need a way for people to become citizens, a way for people to sleep without fear, and we need it done in a way that respects the rights of workers,” Mojica concludes. "We’re going to try and educate the American public and the Hispanic community through the churches about our rights and about what is happening to immigrants in this country.”
Related Articles:
Teens Take on Raids
IMMIGRATION MATTERS: The Anatomy of an Immigration Raid
Immigration < NAM Coverage
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User Comments
rodolfo on Aug 01, 2007 at 09:02:05 said:
It's time to go home. We Americans, brown, black, white, etc—are at the end of our ropes with the abuse of our system. Our generosity has been spat upon—anybody and everybody WHO IS IN LINE IS WELCOME—and it's been stated from the beginning that THE U.S GOVERNMENT DEPORTS ILLEGALS.
Our generosity has permitted 12 million of these people to get in—and now we're supposed to be compassionate?? NO WAY!!!!!
Melissa Rogriguez on Aug 01, 2007 at 00:51:15 said:
Until everyone bases their comments on fact,
rather than rehetoric,a solution to the Immigration Issue will never be found. The distruction of this conttinant begain 500
yrs.ago,with a massive Illegal Invasion
without provocation by Europeans. The murder
and genocide of a thriving indiginous population of 70-100 million people and the rape of their culture,language,and spirituality are dispicable. Those who
survived this massive unjust crime were forced into poverty and relegated to low class citizins on reservations and third world countries,who have to emmigrate to feed their families.These europeans also
created arbitrary borders for their convenience with utter disregard for all Indiginous people.The U.S. has become an
economic giant to a large extent because of years of agressive economic exploitation
and extortion of the third world countries
below its southern border through its huge and greedy multi-national companies and the tactical use of arm twisting.(NAFTA) The U.S. gov has colluded with corrupt third world leaders to exploit natural resources,and have looked the other way when these thieving (European by haretage)
leaders pocket profets,and"invest" the money back into american banks leaving their
citizins poor and helpless.Before comenting
about how Illegal the Mexican Americans who are indiginous to this continant are sooooo
Illegal here,you might want to reconsider,being that real history shows that euroamericans are anchored to this land
because of a massive crime spree.The true history about euroamericans has been distorted,covered,sweetned,convenantly forgotten,changed and most people say it has nothing to do with them.When people still reep the benifits from this unjust Invasion and refuse to allow other Immigrants to become documanted residents,it is time to open their eyes.
The lothing and hate that Legalatina expresses for latino children and all latinos in general is a perfect example
of how the indiginous cultures have been brainwashed to express themselves in a negative manner about their people to be accepted by white america. It is amazing that many of you call yourselves "CHRISTIANS"but the falsness and hypocracy of your words prove otherwise they
reek of racism and bigotery.
Milton Chee on Jul 31, 2007 at 17:37:48 said:
It is unfortunate that the prior bloggers have their sense of solidarity cut so short that they cannot see these children AND their parents as part of all of us who must labor for a living. They are forced to come here under the same economic gun that forces all us to work to survive. That bond is actually stronger than any national border and the more of us who see this the closer we all can come to decide how the wealth we produce, but is owned by the owners, can by used for the benefit of all. That is the fight we are now engaged the unity of working people or our continued weakening by borders, race, nationalities, sex, employed vs. unemployed, age, skill level or any other means to keep us from seeing each other as fellow fighters and allies. We produce the riches they own. Taxes are another way the owing class passes onto us the costs of society to protect their ownership, that why services for us are being closed and not expanded as so sorely needed.
Gary Bullock on Jul 30, 2007 at 18:27:33 said:
In Mexico they tell people to come here and have kids and we'll take care of them. Our hospitals and schools are free. But now there are hospitals that are closing down, and schools are losing money. Even though we can't see it, taxpayers are indeed putting money into our public services that is getting stolen by non-taxpayers. The total population is using more than it gives, and now we are starting to see a tangable loss.
That is one reason why people need to play by the rules for the good of their neighbors.
If the parents believed in our rules and followed them then their children would not have to go through these experiences and grow up hating us.
haropld hubbard on Jul 30, 2007 at 18:03:40 said:
If these people spent 14 years in the USA, why did they not apply for citizenship like other immigrants both legal and illegal? Why do they feel they are above the law? They are criminals under our laws. The American prople have very right under the Constitution to arrest, confine or export
criminals. Why is this difficult to understand? Furthermore, while we were educating those illegal children at our expense
the parents knew at any time they could be deported,yet they stayed without any effort to become Americans.
legalatina on Jul 30, 2007 at 16:28:52 said:
It is appalling that these children are being taught that violation of federal immigration laws, judge's deportation orders, identity theft, motor vehicle laws and others is justified if one is an illegal alien. It is truly pathetic that an illegal alien would use young children to advocate on her behalf when she is a fugitive of the law. The separation of families is something that happens as the direct result of the crimes committed by these parents/illegal aliens. Our laws aren't the problem, the problem is that these parents have a false sense of entitlement to benefits/privileges of citizenship and are openly defiant of U.S. laws. They and they alone jeopardized their children's futures by their actions. They make a mockery out of all law-abiding immigrants who play by the rules to enter this country. Sin verguenzas. Just say NO MAS to illegal aliens. Si se puede...enforce the law. BTW: I'm Hispanic American and sick of these people flaunting their utter disrespect and contempt for our system of laws.
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