Protests precede ICE visit

By Ilyssa Daly
Posted 7/17/19

As President Donald Trump declared that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would begin a series of raids throughout the country, in order to begin the deportation process for …

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Protests precede ICE visit

Posted

As President Donald Trump declared that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would begin a series of raids throughout the country, in order to begin the deportation process for undocumented immigrants, protests, were taking place throughout the region.

The group “Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson” has confirmed the presence of ICE in both Middletown and Newburgh on Facebook. Immigrants that are being targeted by ICE have been instructed to not open the doors to their homes, to exercise their Fifth Amendment right of remaining silent if they come into contact with ICE officers, and to not sign any documents without an attorney present. People are also encouraged to record/take pictures of ICE, as long as they are not on property owned by the federal government.

These ICE raids have been long promised by Trump, as he has been threatening deportation by these raids since his campaign. Then, last week, Trump tweeted that ICE would “begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in.”

That’s not all. The Trump administration also announced that migrants who applied for asylum in the United States would be denied if they did not apply for asylum first in any other countries on their to the U.S. In essence: migrants must be denied asylum in other countries before coming to the United States.

The incoming raids sparked protests across the country. Activist groups from the around the United States began to rally in support of the undocumented families that live in their communities.

The Hudson Valley is no different. There have been multiple community rallies in protest of the ICE raids and to stand in solidarity with immigrants. On July 13, dozens of people marched in a rally called the “I Stand with Immigrants March,” which was spearheaded by the group RAIZ, a sector of Planned Parenthood in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Organized by Aura Lopez Zarate and Charlene Valdez, the rally was designed to protest the upcoming raids, especially in the City of Newburgh, which has a majority Latinx population.

RAIZ is designed to “involve the Latin community [to] make sure that allies are with us,” said Zarate before the rally began. She hopes that the “Trump administration stops separating children and their parents at the [Mexican] border.”

The initial gathering took place in the Municipal Parking Lot on Washington Street. Protesters then marched throughout the City of Newburgh, including Liberty Street and Broadway Street.

Mark Sanchez Potter, a teacher at Newburgh Free Academy said he was marching as a “concerned citizen, a human, and a Christian.”

“I’m a Latino, and I’ve also had discrimination towards me, [so] I can understand the struggle that it is to be Latino in this country,” said Joe Alvarez, the founder of We Are Newburgh, before the group marched. “It’s sad because we’re all human beings, and we should be treated as such. So, we are Newburgh supports every single thing that is positive for our city. That’s keeping our families together.”