Children urge Obama to end immigrant deportations
Leilani Albano | 7-27-2010 | Comments |
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"Don’t take our parents away!"That was the message 18-year-old Maria Tellez gave to President Obama, urging him to stop immigrant deportations.
Tellez was joined by more than a dozen children and their parents at a press conference at the office of Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, an immigrant rights group in Van Nuys. The event was held in response to a recent spike in deportations, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
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Alicia Flores, Executive Director of La Hermandad Mexicana in Ventura, says the deportations have had an especially detrimental impact on immigrant children, particularly those with undocumented parents."The children are the ones who are ones being more affected by this law," said Flores.
CHIRLA estimates that 400,000 people throughout the nation have been deported from January to June of this year. That figure is more than the total number of immigrants deported in the entire year of 2008, under then President, George Bush.
Flores says the Obama Administration has been “weak” on the immigration issue.
"They have been laid off from work," said Flores. "They’ve been more deportations. Also, when I said weak, it’s because Obama has not been aggressive in putting the legalization on the table."
Thousands of immigrant children are being separated from their parents as a result. Maria Tellez says she will have to take on the parenting role of her siblings, if her mom and dad — who are both undocumented — are taken by Homeland Security."I’m going to be their mom, I guess," said Tellez.
In addition to the deportations, immigrant families complain of workplace raids and other discriminatory practices that make it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers. Maria Guadalupe Hernandez, of Panorama City, arrived with her husband from Mexico to find work. But because they are undocumented, she says they are unable to find jobs that pay adequate wages to support their two daughters. She is asking the president to pass legislation that will help them secure good jobs.
"She wants papers, she thought it would be easy to come here and get a job," said Tellez translating for Hernandez. "But it didn’t turn out that way, because she needs a social. She wants to get paid a little more. She just wants to get paid the minimum wage."To remedy the situation, Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional is asking the Obama Administration to pass comprehensive immigration reform... that includes amnesty for 12 million immigrants.
Transnacional will be holding rallies from July 27 to 29 in cities throughout the nation including Washington DC and Chicago.
Tags: children children of immigrants immigration president obama south los angeles undocumented immigrants
