Anti-deportation activists held a “die-in” Tuesday in lower Manhattan as part of a national movement to get President Obama to stop sending illegal immigrants back to their Central American countries.
Many of the undocumented are fleeing violence and instability caused by gangs, drug trafficking and government corruption, the activists said.
“We are disappointed that the Obama administration once again has taken this enforcement-heavy approach,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
TED CRUZ SAYS HE WOULD DEPORT ALL 12 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
The group said that in December the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced they would seek to deport immigrants who illegally entered the U.S. after May 2014.
On Jan. 2, roughly 121 individuals, mostly mothers and children, were detained, the group said. Within a week, almost half were deported.
New York City has yet to be targeted by ICE raids — but people in the immigrant community are afraid, activists said.
“The ICE raids has had a chilling effect on all immigrant communities throughout New York City,” said Aracelis Lucero, a community activist.
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“In the Mexican community, families are paralyzed by fear … Our communities are more than statistics … they are people, with families and lives that are being threatened by our government’s inability to fix our broken immigration system,” Lucero said.
Charlotte Gossett Navarro said many illegal immigrants face potentially deadly peril when they’re sent back to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“These are folks who are coming to seek asylum, and the U.S. government is saying they don’t have a real reason to fear for their lives,” Gossett, 34, said.
“But we have evidence that 83 deported people have been killed in Central America since 2014.”
