Thousands March For Immigrant Rights And Reform
By aaroncynic in News on Oct 15, 2013 2:20PM
Thousands marched from Teamster City to the Daley Center Saturday demanding immigration reform and calling for an end to deportations. A coalition of labor, community and faith groups organized the event, which organizers stated numbered some 5,000 attendees. “Every single day, 1,100 people are being deported,” said Laura Garza, secretary-treasurer of SEIU, according to The Gate. “In Illinois, 56,108 children have lost a parent in the last four years.”
In an August article in The Chicago Reporter the Center of Migration Studies said more than 120,000 deportations were made to three cities in Mexico in 2012, seven times the amount in 2008. The three cities' deportees are dropped off in are hotspots for violence, kidnapping and murder. Human rights advocates and other officials have said the deportation process is a violation of international law. Grace Menge, a researcher with Human Rights Watch told The Reporter “The international standard is very clear. The state has to have the ability to protect its people. This is a crucial issue.”
At Saturday’s rally, family members of people awaiting deportations told their stories. Progress Illinois reports 9-year-old Liz Marquez, a U.S. citizen whose father is currently facing deportation said:
“I am tired of a broken immigration system that treats my parents like criminals. Our parents are not criminals. They are hard working people who have sacrificed everything. Living with fear is not the right way to live. It is my right as a U.S. citizen to be able to live with my parents without being separated by a deportation.”