Six People Arrested at White House Rally for Transgender Illegal Aliens
Immigration Reform News: Six People Arrested at White House Rally for Transgender Immigrants
By Selena Hill (staff@latinpost.com)
First Posted: Jul 01, 2015 04:50 PM EDT
Six activists advocating for the rights of undocumented transgender immigrants were arrested during a protest near the White House on Tuesday.
More than 70 people participated in the demonstration, which was held to stop the detention of undocumented LGBT immigrants.
According to The Washington Blade, the six people were arrested at the Operation "Break the Cage" rally for blocking traffic at or near the White House in Washington, D.C. for two hours. The people taken into custody were Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, Brooke Cerda-Guzman, Joselyn Mendoza, Richard Masson, Dagoberto Bailon and Damian Lima after they refused to leave the intersection of 16th and H Streets in front of Lafayette Park.
During the demonstration, nine people staged a "die-in" to symbolize the LGBTQ immigrants who died in detention or after being deported back to their home countries, according to a statement issued by United We Dream.
"People are being tortured in our own country, in detention centers," said Sousa-Rodriguez, the deputy managing director of United We Dream, which advocates on behalf of undocumented immigrants. "They may be far away from here, but they're too close to our families, too close to our own lives."
Sousa-Rodriguez, a gay undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. at the age of 14, added that it "wasn't easy to be an undocumented person and queer at the same time" because he "had to live with the constant fear of deportation, with the constant fear of detention."
At the protest, a transgender woman named Mendoza urged the Obama administration to close immigrant detention center because trans detainees are "raped, killed and denied their medications."
"We have an opportunity to let our president know that although he's leaving a legacy for LGBT rights, he left some (behind) in the process," said Casa Ruby CEO Ruby Corado to a crowd gathered at Lafayette Park.
She added, "He left LGBT immigrants whose only dream was to survive, to be in a place where they can finally find some dignity. He also left behind an entire transgender community and we sit here to remember the deaths of those who never had a chance."
http://www.latinpost.com/articles/63...immigrants.htm
