Thread: Calif. students get arrested to test deport policy

Calif. students get arrested to test deport policy

Updated 03:10 p.m., Thursday, July 14, 2011

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Seven illegal immigrant students arrested in a Southern California street protest are now waiting to see whether they will be deported in a test of the Obama administration's immigration policy, students said Thursday.

The students were questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after they were arrested Tuesday for blocking street traffic during a street protest in San Bernardino, said Jonathan Perez, a 24-year-old communications student who was detained.

Perez, who will attend Pasadena City College this fall, said the students intentionally blocked the street in the hopes of getting arrested to prove that law enforcement agencies in San Bernardino are collaborating with immigration authorities — and that students get no special treatment.

"We wanted to ... show that once we're in prison that ICE does get involved with undocumented youth, although Obama says they don't," said Perez, who came to the country from Colombia when he was 3.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials chose not to detain the students after questioning them but are still investigating, the agency said in a statement. ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley declined to state whether the students would be put into deportation proceedings.

The protest comes as the Obama administration has made clear that illegal immigrant students who were brought here as children are not a priority for deportation. Even so, students say some continue to be deported and have led similar demonstrations elsewhere in the country against stringent immigration laws in an effort to push for a bill to grant them legal status.

Illegal immigrant student groups planned the demonstration for San Bernardino Valley College, where they say campus police have turned over students to local law enforcement agencies that collaborate with federal immigration authorities. At least one student detained by campus police is now in deportation proceedings, said Javier Hernandez, a protest organizer and member of the Inland Empire Dream Team, an organization of illegal immigrant college students in the suburbs east of Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, students gathered at the campus to hear the seven students "come out" and reveal their immigration status. The group then led a march through the campus and later blocked a nearby street until police told them to leave, Hernandez said.

The seven students who refused to budge were arrested by San Bernardino police, held for 12 hours and are being charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, he said.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/ ... z1S77pfqKq

Perez, who will attend Pasadena City College this fall, said the students intentionally blocked the street in the hopes of getting arrested to prove that law enforcement agencies in San Bernardino are collaborating with immigration authorities — and that students get no special treatment.

"We wanted to ... show that once we're in prison that ICE does get involved with undocumented youth, although Obama says they don't," said Perez, who came to the country from Colombia when he was 3.

Get no special treatment? Are you kidding me??!?!?!?! Then why aren't (illegal alien) students deported, like they're supposed to be??

the defiance and the arrogance is stunning!

Who is paying their tuition? ... and housing expenses? .... books & lab fees?

How funny would it be if they all got deported?

These militant invaders are defiantly challenging our country and immigration laws! Sadly, we have a President who has already sided with criminal invaders.

Let’s hope it’s a slow day over at ICE and these criminal invaders are deported to their rightful country of origin. They have been squatting on US soil long enough! I won’t hold my breath however that they will ever be deported.