Thread: Miami students protest deportation of college-age immigrants

sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flrndice0307sbmar07,0,7919849.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Miami students protest deportation of college-age immigrants
By Ruth Morris

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

March 7, 2008

MIAMI

Covering their mouths with tape, student activists marched Thursday to support a colleague who charges immigration agents targeted her Ecuadorean family because of her campaign to legalize undocumented immigrants who go to college.

Gaby Pacheco, 23, says authorities seemed to be looking for her when they entered her family's home in July 2006 and detained her parents and two sisters. Pacheco has a student visa and is studying special education at Miami Dade College, but the four family members are undocumented. They were detained for several hours and released, and have since been issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge.

The Pacheco case is the third in recent months to highlight immigration troubles of college-age immigrants brought to South Florida as children. Their stories have shed light on tightened immigration enforcement. Advocates, meanwhile, say the cases show how current practices penalize students for their parents' decision to live in the United States without authorization.

"There is no humanity in the way they're deciding who they're deporting," said Jose Luis Marantes, an organizer at Thursday's rally.

A group of 25 members of Students Working for Equal Rights dramatized an immigration raid at the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College. Later, they walked to the nearby courtroom where the Pacheco family was to appear for a hearing in their deportation case. The hearing was postponed because the judge was not feeling well.

Pacheco alleges agents who detained her family in 2006 made comments that suggested authorities were aware of her activism to support the Dream Act— a bill that would have handed legal residence to the children of undocumented immigrants if they finished college or served in the military. Pacheco says her family is being selectively prosecuted because of her vocal stance.

Agents questioning her sister "started saying, 'You should thank your sister for what is happening to you,'" Pacheco said. The Dream Act failed in the Senate in October.

Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency could not comment on the Pacheco case because it is pending.

"However, what I can tell you is that ICE officers are sworn to uphold our nation's immigration laws," she said in an e-mail statement. "Those who are in violation of U.S. law should not be surprised if they are arrested."

Tens of thousands of undocumented high school students graduate into educational limbo every year. Without legal residence they are subject to higher, out-of-state fees at local colleges.

"It's horrible to see the talents of these young people wasted," Pacheco said.

In another case that drew attention to the Dream Act last year, friends of Juan and Alex Gomez, ages 18 and 20, mounted a high-profile Internet campaign to allow the Colombian-born brothers to stay in Miami to study.

More recently, students also held a vigil outside a Deerfield Beach immigration center two weeks ago to protest the detention of Sarjina Emy, a 19-year-old held there while she fights deportation to Bangladesh.

Those in favor of less immigration say Dream Act provisions amount to amnesty for lawbreakers.

"Giving an amnesty would encourage more parents overseas to break the law and put their kids into this same difficult situation," said Roy Beck, director of NumbersUSA.

Ruth Morris can be reached at rmorris@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.

Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

25 protesters huh?

As usual you are right Roy.