Thread: NGOs Urge Obama to Halt Deportations

Published March 16, 2011

Mexican and Mexican-American leaders of U.S.-based immigrant-advocacy groups urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order halting deportations until a long-promised immigration overhaul is approved.

"If there's not going to be immigration reform, then halt the deportations and stop separating our families," Angela Sanbrano, with the Chicago-based National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, a network of dozens of community-based groups led by Latin American and Caribbean immigrants, told a press conference
here Tuesday at the end of a three-day gathering.

Sanbrano is one of 34 leaders of 24 immigrant-advocacy organizations in the United States who took part in the meeting organized by the Mexico branch of Oxfam International and aimed at forging alliances and adopting common stances on immigration.

She criticized the Secure Communities program, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative launched in 2008 and designed to identify immigrants in U.S. jails who are deportable under immigration law, saying it causes immigrants to be viewed as criminals and a "threat."

Sanbrano said "400,000 people were deported last year" through that program and that figure will likely increase because "now there are more than 20 states that have introduced measures - like the one in Arizona (SB 1070)" - that seek to criminalize undocumented migrants.

For his part, Jose Luis Gutierrez, NALACC's associate director for trans-national initiatives, said Secure Communities has been a colossal failure, citing a university study that found that 76 percent of people deported through that partnership between federal agencies and state and local law enforcement had no criminal record.

"The underlying issue here is that programs like these are being implemented that have a very negative perception of immigrants and a special focus on Mexican immigrants or those who resemble them, including Central Americans and Caribbeans," he added.

The Secure Communities program was available in 686 jurisdictions in 33 states as of October 2010 and is to be implemented in each of the 3,100 state and local jails nationwide by 2013.

Gutierrez said it is regrettable that Obama, the "president of change and hope" who "received the overwhelming support of the Hispanic population," has not lived up to expectations in the immigration area since taking office on Jan. 20, 2009.

He also urged the Mexican government to "put more energy into" pressuring the United States to enact comprehensive immigration reform - including a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 10.8 million illegal migrants - and to change the negative perception many Americans have of Mexican immigrants.

Aaron Ortiz, member of the Mexican-American Coalition for Immigration Reform, formed by a group of influential Mexican and Mexican-American leaders, concurred with Gutierrez on the need for direct lobbying of U.S. senators and representatives to encourage them to keep immigration reform on the agenda.

"It's a fact that we won't have it this year but we have to keep working to keep the debate going," he added.

Finally, the project director for the Zacatecan Federation of Clubs of Southern California, Efrain Jimenez, lamented the fact that immigration matters are often addressed from a standpoint of conflict.

Jimenez cited cases in the United States in which some communities such as New Haven, Utah, and Auckland, California, have actively sought to attract immigrants and have prospered.

"Those should also be highlighted in the media because we can use some specific (examples) in which white, non-Hispanics are bringing in migrants to boost their development and it's working out for them. This can defeat the myth that we migrants are nothing more than a burden," he said.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politi ... mmigrants/

I came here legally and no I don't have my brother, my mother, my father, my grandparents, my cousins etc with me here. What about my family? Deal with it Sobrano and other ethnic centric pro-illegal advocates!
Enough with this non sense.

"If there's not going to be immigration reform, then halt the deportations and stop separating our families,"

So in other words: if you aren't going to make us magically legal, then just let us stay anyway! What a load.

She criticized the Secure Communities program, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative launched in 2008 and designed to identify immigrants in U.S. jails who are deportable under immigration law, saying it causes immigrants to be viewed as criminals and a "threat."

I hate to tell you this, but if they are already in jail then YES they are criminals! And as always you overlook the fact that the moment you jumped that border you broke the law!

Aren't all the states mentioned in the article broke? I'm all for immagration reform but first we need a secure border then we kick out all who don't belong and then we reasses where we are economicly and what as a city/state we can afford to take on and we start accepting people who want to be here the right way! We don't want or need everybody who sneeks across the border I'm sure most are very nice people but who they are is of no concern the truth is they came here the wrong way breaking a mulitude of our nations laws ( the laws aren't anything new they're own native countrys have simular laws). Don't let these people turn this issue in to a shade of gray when its a black and white

Originally Posted by alamb

I came here legally and no I don't have my brother, my mother, my father, my grandparents, my cousins etc with me here. What about my family?

"alamb did you want to assimilate or did you feel you had no choice?"

You're still the loudest voice here! And the "Bomb-Bay!" for being here!

Thanks, alamb!

who the hell cares what these groups want and demand.
they do NOT speak for the majority of the american people and never will

bttt

Originally Posted by moptop

I'm all for immagration reform but first we need a secure border then we kick out all who don't belong and then we reasses where we are economicly and what as a city/state we can afford to take on and we start accepting people who want to be here the right way! We don't want or need everybody who sneeks across the border

Sounds like a plan. We're all caught up in a zero-sum game: jobs and other benefits for foreigners or jobs and other benefits for Americans.
************************************************** *********************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

"If there's not going to be immigration reform, then halt the deportations and stop separating our families," Angela Sanbrano, with the Chicago-based National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities,

if you dont like our laws..... GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE and go back to your own home country