NEW YORK—While Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is in town for a speaking event, immigrant groups in the city are taking the opportunity to let her know that they expect change in U.S. immigration policy.
A small group of protesters corralled behind police lines held a rally across the street from the Council on Foreign Relations, where the DHS secretary was giving a speech on counterterrorism. They say that they elected President Barack Obama on his message of change and immigration reform, but so far, they have been disappointed.
“I’m disappointed in the way DHS responded to the immigration crisis,” said Leticia Alanis from Mexico. She’s part of an organization called La Union, an immigrant rights group based in Brooklyn. “We have heard of recent reports of racial profiling. We were told by the Obama administration that there would be change in DHS policy, but we haven’t seen it.”
What this group of protesters wants is overhaul on a broad range of issues: racial profiling, deportation, illegal immigration, and the activities of local law enforcement.
Granda Marcus works with the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a group of 28 churches and organizations that supports open discussion about immigration policy. It is currently working with six families who in their own unique circumstances are facing deportation.
One such family is a couple from China with three children born in the U.S. Because they came illegally ten years ago, the parents now face deportation although they have applied for asylum. “As parents facing deportation, we feel helpless to protect our own children,” writes Joe in his statement on the Coalition’s Web site. “Because of China’s one-child policy and religious persecution, we could not take our children back with us. We want our children to be well-educated citizens in this great country where they were born.”
A Brooklyn man who has been living legally in the United States for 32 years faces deportation because he plead guilty in the 1970s to a non-violent drug conviction. His example is not unique. According to Human Rights Watch, immigration officials have deported 672,593 immigrants since 1997 pursuant to a law that makes criminal convictions, including those declared before the law passed in 1997, reason for mandatory deportation.
“We’re here to tell Napolitano and Obama to end mandatory deportation and let immigration judges really decide cases, and keep families together,” said Marcus.
So far Obama has signed into law a bill that removes bars against legal immigrant children from being covered by health insurance, and allotted $400 million to strengthen security and infrastructure for ports of entry on the Southwest border.
Immigrant groups are not the only ones impatient to see the President give immediate consideration to their cause. Environmentalists, health care reformists, women’s rights groups, human rights groups, African aid groups, gun control lobbyists are all vying for the President’s attention, which has been preoccupied with the ailing economy.
A small group of protesters corralled behind police lines held a rally across the street from the Council on Foreign Relations, where the DHS secretary was giving a speech on counterterrorism. They say that they elected President Barack Obama on his message of change and immigration reform, but so far, they have been disappointed.
“I’m disappointed in the way DHS responded to the immigration crisis,” said Leticia Alanis from Mexico. She’s part of an organization called La Union, an immigrant rights group based in Brooklyn. “We have heard of recent reports of racial profiling. We were told by the Obama administration that there would be change in DHS policy, but we haven’t seen it.”
What this group of protesters wants is overhaul on a broad range of issues: racial profiling, deportation, illegal immigration, and the activities of local law enforcement.
Granda Marcus works with the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, a group of 28 churches and organizations that supports open discussion about immigration policy. It is currently working with six families who in their own unique circumstances are facing deportation.
One such family is a couple from China with three children born in the U.S. Because they came illegally ten years ago, the parents now face deportation although they have applied for asylum. “As parents facing deportation, we feel helpless to protect our own children,” writes Joe in his statement on the Coalition’s Web site. “Because of China’s one-child policy and religious persecution, we could not take our children back with us. We want our children to be well-educated citizens in this great country where they were born.”
A Brooklyn man who has been living legally in the United States for 32 years faces deportation because he plead guilty in the 1970s to a non-violent drug conviction. His example is not unique. According to Human Rights Watch, immigration officials have deported 672,593 immigrants since 1997 pursuant to a law that makes criminal convictions, including those declared before the law passed in 1997, reason for mandatory deportation.
“We’re here to tell Napolitano and Obama to end mandatory deportation and let immigration judges really decide cases, and keep families together,” said Marcus.
So far Obama has signed into law a bill that removes bars against legal immigrant children from being covered by health insurance, and allotted $400 million to strengthen security and infrastructure for ports of entry on the Southwest border.
Immigrant groups are not the only ones impatient to see the President give immediate consideration to their cause. Environmentalists, health care reformists, women’s rights groups, human rights groups, African aid groups, gun control lobbyists are all vying for the President’s attention, which has been preoccupied with the ailing economy.
