May Day Protesters Decry Deportations
By Tim McDevitt
Epoch Times New York Staff May 05, 2008


NEW YORK—Several hundred protesters rallied in Union Square last week on May Day to support immigrants' rights and call attention to an increase in detentions and deportations by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Immigrants from many parts of the world were represented at Union Square—with Latinos by far the largest group.

"We are here to express our disappointment with Congress and the Department of Homeland Security for the way they are conducting the raids," said Carlos Canales, who is originally from El Salvador and has been in the United States for 20 years.

"We are not asking that the immigration law to not be implemented, it is precisely what we are asking for, that they comply with immigration law, there is a due process, they are violating their own laws, they are violating the civil rights of immigrants—especially Latinos."

Many of the speakers said that these raids often target particular work places or apartment complexes and neighborhoods. "In September of last year the DHS conducted raids in New York State but focused on certain areas of Long Island like Freeport, Hempstead, Uniondale, Westbury, where the concentration of Latinos is high," said Canales. "They think that in those places they will find the people they are looking for."

When asked why the concentration of deportations is on Latinos, Canales replied, "It is a matter of power, power is money and people…they know that the Latino population is growing, the Latino fertility rate is growing and the white fertility rate is declining."

Speaker Victor Toro, of the South Bronx, is currently undergoing deportation proceedings after living in the United States for 25 years.


IMMIGRATION ADVOCATE Victor Toro at Union Square May Day rally for immigration last week. (Tim McDevitt/Epoch Times)

Toro has been an active participant at immigrants' rights events and was arrested while on board an Amtrak train by U.S. Border Patrol agents when returning from a speaking engagement in San Francisco. Toro is a citizen of Chile, where he was jailed and tortured for his opposition to former Chilean dictator Pinochet.

Toro discussed the political environment in the United States.

"Immigrants need to organize themselves regardless of elections results," said Toro, in regards to the US presidential election this year. "No matter who is elected there will still be a struggle for immigrants to fight for legalization."

According to the Detention Watch Network (DWN) one of the organizers of the event, the U.S. government detains over 280,000 people a year, more than triple the number from nine years ago, at a cost of $1.2 billion a year. Detained immigrants are held in over 400 facilities throughout the country.

The DHS owns and operates its own detention centers, it also buys bed space from over 300 local county and city prisons. Detained immigrants are sometimes mixed in with local prison populations.

In addition to immigration rights, equal rights groups and labor groups many others were gathered on union square joining in the rally, most notably was the large contingent of supporters of Sean Bell, many of the speakers acknowledged the recent acquittal verdict of the three NYPD officers in the shooting of the unarmed victim.

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