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
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| 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, 2017In 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, 2017Last 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
