Thread: Illegal immigrants chain themselves to White House fence

By Stephen Dinan
-
The Washington Times
Updated: 10:42 a.m. on Wednesday, September 18,

Their move creates a conundrum for Mr. Obama and the Secret Service, who will have to decide whether to put the seven activists into deportation proceedings now.

Seven illegal immigrants chained themselves to the White House fence Wednesday to demand President Obama halt all deportations, saying he has a moral obligation to keep families together.

“Stop deportations — not one more,” onlookers chanted as police moved in to remove the activists, who activists broadcast a live video of their action.

A day earlier, Mr. Obama had rejected their calls, telling Telemundo, a Spanish-language network, that halting more deportations is “not an option.”

Immigrant-rights activists said 1,200 immigrants are deported every day. The seven who chained themselves to the White House fence along Pennsylvania Avenue include three from Arizona, two from Atlanta, one from New Orleans and one from New York.

Their move creates a conundrum for Mr. Obama and the Secret Service, who will have to decide whether to put the seven activists into deportation proceedings now.

The activists were infuriated Monday when Mr. Obama ruled out halting deportations.

They said the president drew the same line in his first term when he rejected calls to stop deporting young illegal immigrants, the so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. as young children, but the president relented just ahead of the election — and went on to win a large share of Hispanic votes en route to reelection.

After that previous reversal, activists hope — and some expect — Mr. Obama to change his mind this year, if House Republicans don’t pass a bill legalizing illegal immigrants.

“When he said he didn’t have the power to stop deporting DREAMers, we built a powerful case with grassroots pressure and legal analysis and won a monumental victory with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” said Cristina Jimenez, Managing Director of United We Dream. “He does have the power to stop deportations and we will keep challenging him.”

Mr. Obama on Monday told “Noticiero Telemundo,” a Spanish-language news program, that halting deportations of parents of Dreamers was “not an option.”

Deportations have been a tricky issue for Mr. Obama all around.

He has set records for deportations, removing about 400,000 people a year from the country, in order to be able to argue to conservatives that he is serious about enforcing immigration laws.

But he says he has tried to focus those deportation efforts on criminals and repeat-immigration violators, leaving most rank-and-file illegal immigrants in little danger of being deported.

However, a new report Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse suggests the administration’s deportation efforts are increasingly missing their mark.

TRAC traced the number of detainers placed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on immigrants the agency wants to put in deportation proceedings, and said that for the first four months of 2013, roughly half of those ICE targeted had no criminal conviction — not even a minor traffic violation.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...lves-wh-fence/

Police make 100+ arrests at Capitol immigration rally

Just more in-our-face emboldened behavior which this administration has created.

I wonder which government grant paid their way to Washington.
Arizona undocumented immigrants arrested at White House protest

By Pei Li, Cronkite News Service
Published: September 19, 2013 at 8:50 am


Tucson resident Narciso Valenzuela Siriaco, right, was one of a handful of protesters who handcuffed himself to the White House fence Wednesday to protest continued deportations. (Cronkite News Service photo by Pei Li)Tucson resident Narciso Valenzuela Siriaco, right, was one of a handful of protesters who handcuffed himself to the White House fence Wednesday to protest continued deportations. (Cronkite News Service photo by Pei Li)


WASHINGTON – Three Arizonans were among seven undocumented immigrants who handcuffed themselves to the White House fence and were arrested Wednesday as part of a protest against continued deportations.

“Not one more, not one more!” they chanted, in English and Spanish, as police and tourists looked on.

Police showed up within minutes and then watched for the next 30 minutes, along with a dozen or so supporters and organizers and the gawking tourists who snapped pictures of the protesters on the fence.

The protesters were then arrested without incident and taken to a local jail, where they were expected to be held at least until Wednesday evening.

Organizers said those arrested included Maria Cruz Ramirez, a Phoenix mother of three, and Tucson residents Narciso Valenzuela Siriaco and Jose Francisco Rincon Cautino, both of whom are said to currently face deportation.

“Many of them live in risk every day,” said Jacinta Gonzalez, lead organizer for the Congress of Day Laborers, who was on hand in support of Wednesday’s protest.

She called on President Barack Obama to “do the right thing” and take executive action to stop deportations.

An immigration reform bill is currently stalled in the House and immigrants cannot wait for Congress to act, Gonzalez said. She noted that one of the protesters has a friend who was deported last week, even though he is also a sole provider for his citizen daughters.

“We will not permit the president to be a bystander and we ask him to take action now,” she said.

But Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the president does not have the authority to stop deportations, and it would be unconstitutional for him to do so.

Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration-policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said the president has very limited power to halt deportations. Even if he could, Nowrasteh said, the call might fall on deaf ears.

“The Obama administration since 2008 has massively expanded the deportation apparatus of the U.S. government and has presided over some of the largest recorded deportation rates in U.S. history,” Nowrasteh said.

But that is exactly why protesters targeted Obama. Fernando Lopez, a former Arizona resident, criticized the president for having a record of deportations higher than that of any other administration.

Lopez said he was held in Arizona detention center for a month because he was stopped and did not have an ID, and that he is now facing deportation.

“I know what it is to be in detention center, I know what it is to be racially profiled, I know what it is every time you go out you are not sure if you could come back to your house by the end of the day,” he said.

Organizers of Wednesday’s event said they are also calling for a national “convergence” in Phoenix in mid-October to include meetings, leadership training, workshops and more protests.

“People will come from the across the country to have conversations on how to stop deportations, and continue to shut down ICE (Immigration and Customers Enforcement) offices to make sure there are no more deportations in the community,” Lopez predicted.

“We have to act, and we will do everything we could, because nobody else is going to do it,” he said.
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/...ce-in-protest/

They have that "I demand" you give what I want look that is so offensive.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

I wonder which government grant paid their way to Washington.
Arizona undocumented immigrants arrested at White House protest

By Pei Li, Cronkite News Service
Published: September 19, 2013 at 8:50 am


http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/...ce-in-protest/

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