Latino advocates to protest Obama in Miami and 9 other U.S. cities

cltampa.com
Posted by Mitch Perry
Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 3:34 PM

When a politician gets heat from both the left and the right, often times that same elected official will remark upon this bipartisan opposition as a badge of honor, saying something along the lines of 'well, if they hate you on both sides, you must be doing something right.'"

That might be the case. Or the policies being opposed might be so odious that it leaves nobody satisfied. That would be the case when it comes to illegal immigration.

Lately the conservative answer to the question has been a blanket platitude to 'secure the border,' and until that's accomplished, there's nothing else to say about the matter.

Latinos and many of their advocates on the left, however, have been frustrated that there hasn't been an effort for a comprehensive illegal immigration bill (but the votes aren't there in Congress). And now they are extremely upset with President Obama for the large number of deportations of undocumented citizens that have come under his watch (not that the Republicans have ever given him any credit for that).

Obama is also under fire for his support of Secure Communities, a program that allows federal authorities to screen fingerprints of those arrested by local police in order to detect undocumented immigrants. Critics say the program nets large numbers of non-criminal undocumented immigrants and takes focus away from the primary targets of immigration enforcement, violent offenders.

On Tuesday, activists in 10 U.S. cities, including in Miami, will hold a National Day of Action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community."

The Latino community leaders are choosing that date because of a PBS Frontline program scheduled to air Tuesday night called Lost In Detention.

Roberto Lovato is with the group Presente.org, the lead organization behind Tuesday's actions.

[i] “The issues of immigrant and Latino imprisonment that are exposed in ‘Lost in Detention’ will surely be a major concern in the upcoming elections. Latino families throughout the United States are deeply concerned with such reports because they expose the extremism that lies at the heart of President Obama’s SCOMM program, detention policies and other immigration policies. Since signaling a new course in our immigration policy a few weeks ago, President Obama has continued his aggressive persecution, jailing, and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who he has labeled ‘criminals’ and whose lives are being destroyed through traffic violations and similar minor infractions.â€