Grassroots Immigration Groups Denounce White House for Escalating Deportations

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Leaders from grassroots organizations across the nation entered the Beltway today to send a wake-up call to President Obama and Congress. Representing communities from Seattle to Chicago and California to New York, they expressed displeasure with the escalation of deportations by the Obama Administration and demanded movement on comprehensive immigration reform at a press conference at the National Press Club. Broken promises are creating an uproar that will have electoral consequences, the leaders warned.

Lack of action is also fueling enthusiasm for the March 21 “March for America,” where tens of thousands of immigrants and concerned citizens intend to send a clear message to our nation’s leaders: delays are unacceptable and the time for comprehensive immigration reform is now.

At the press conference, OneAmerica Executive Director Pramila Jayapal voiced the frustration of immigrants everywhere who voted for these leaders, but are fed up with inaction. “Today, we are here to say that we are tired of a broken immigration system that forces immigrant workers to live in the shadows just because our elected leaders don’t have the courage to fix this system that serves no-one except the hate- and fear-mongerers who seek to divide America.” 

“This Administration seems proud to out-enforce the Bush Administration,” Jayapal said at the press conference, which was carried live on C-SPAN. “Deporting on average 1,000 immigrants a day, a thousand mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers; a thousand human beings who are doing the work our economy needs; a thousand immigrants who make life better not only for themselves and their families, but for all of us who live in America.” Other community organizations included the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

In the first year of the Obama Administration, ICE was responsible for deporting 387,790 immigrants. This record-high number of removals represents a substantial increase over Bush-era deportations, and adds to the more than one million people whose families have been torn apart by deportations in the last decade.

However, our broken system provides an opportunity. “Today as our economy struggles out of a recession, we know we have an economic recovery package right here in immigration reform,” Jayapal said, citing a recent Center for American Progress report that shows passing an immigration reform bill would add $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP over the next decade. “Yet, we are spending billions and billions on enforcement that adds insult to injury by deporting the very workers that hold up this economy.”

Other leaders, such as Dae Joong Yoon, Executive Director of the Korean Resource Center, emphasized that their communities are suffering and tired of waiting. In Los Angeles, he said, they are holding community fundraisers and will be flying and driving from coast-to-coast to the “March for America” and demanding results.