The Trump administration’s deportation raids in the
second week of February seem to have galvanized activists. Groups around the
country have responded by trying to develop action plans for resistance to the
raids; an especially encouraging sign is what appears to be growing support
among people who aren’t directly impacted by the threat of deportation.
The three articles below report mostly on resistance
efforts in Austin, Chicago, Kansas City and Phoenix, but similar planning is
undoubtedly under way in other areas. If you have information on resistance
networking, please send it to us at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.
(Be sure to indicate whether the information should be made public.) –TPOI
editor
 |
| Photo: Kristi Sandord/Chicago Sun-Times |
How immigration activists mobilized to thwart deportation
raids last weekend
With communities on edge as crackdowns begin, grassroots
groups are acting quickly to form information-sharing networks and raise
awareness of legal rights
By Tom Dart and Ed Pilkington, The Guardian
February 14, 2017
The rumour began spreading around noon last Saturday:
immigration officials were set to conduct raids near churches in Kansas City.
Local activists immediately reacted by forming a resistance plan.
Forty-five people – attorneys, faith leaders, volunteers –
showed up at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in downtown Kansas City at 6am
the following morning.[...]
Read the full article:
Neighbors Joining Together to Block Trump Deportations
By Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times
February 17, 2017
In neighborhoods across Chicago with large immigrant
populations, people are banding together to form rapid response networks to
support their neighbors in the event of expected deportation raids by President
Donald Trump’s administration.
In the 35th Ward on the city’s Northwest Side, Ald. Carlos
Ramirez-Rosa has started what he calls the Community Defense Committee.
In Rogers Park, home to an extremely diverse immigrant
population, volunteer organizers have chosen to dub their effort Protect RP.
In Little Village, the Mexican capital of the Midwest, they
have picked the name La Villita Se Defiende, which translates to Little Village
Defends Itself.
Read the full article:
Blocking Deportation With Your Life: A Conversation With
Arizona Activist Maria Castro
By Sarah Jaffe, Truthout
February 14, 2017
Last week, on February 8, Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos went to
her yearly check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Phoenix,
Arizona, something she has done every year since 2008, when she was arrested in
a raid by notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio and convicted of using a fake Social
Security number to work (and pay Social Security taxes that she would never be
able to collect). This time, instead of being sent home to her family, she was
loaded into a van and deported to Mexico, despite a group of her friends and
family and supporters placing their bodies in the way of the van. Her
14-year-old daughter had to pack her things for her; she, along with her
brother and father, would be staying behind.
Maria Castro -- a community organizer for People United for
Justice and a member of Puente Arizona -- was one of the people putting her
body on the line to try to prevent Garcia de Rayos's deportation. We asked her
to talk about what will be necessary to prevent more families like Garcia de
Rayos's from being split up.[...]
Read the full article:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/39478-blocking-deportation-with-your-life-a-conversation-with-arizona-activist-maria-castro
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