Protesters In US Call For Closing Migrant Detention Centers

Thousands of demonstrators came out Saturday to hold candle light vigils across the United States in protest against rounding up of undocumented immigrants and demanding closure of detention centers for migrant children and families

NEW YORK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jul, 2019 ) :Thousands of demonstrators came out Saturday to hold candle light vigils across the United States in protest against rounding up of undocumented immigrants and demanding closure of detention centers for migrant children and families.

In New York City, activists staged a vigil, holding up placards and candles as they called for the closure of the detention camps.

American Muslim activist Linda Sarsour called the practice of imprisoning those seeking asylum as "modern day slavery" and segregation.

"It's not enough, it's not enough to end family separation. It's not enough to reunite the children with their parents. It's not enough even to say to close the camps. We have to abolish the oppressive systems that even thought they can put children camps on our watch," Sarsour told a cheering crowd in New York City.

In Washington, hundreds of people gathered at the Lafayette Square, near the White House, in response to a call for a collective vigil to push back against the Federal government's deportation tactics, including how children were being held at immigration centers and how raids were being conducted to round up immigrants, according to media reports.

A large group from the American Federation of Teachers marched to the event, chanting "classrooms, not cages." They were welcomed by the executive director of CASA, Gustavo Torres. CASA is the country's largest advocacy group for Latino immigrants.

Organizers of "Lights for Liberty" said that Washington was one of the first cities they planned a vigil in, specifically to "demand action from Congress to end concentration camps and impeach the President," according to the group's website.

At least 30,000 immigrants are detained on any given day in the United States, just in the five states with the highest numbers, according to an organization called Freedom for Immigrants.

Shyamali Hauth, 53, who served in the Air Force for 10 years, attended Friday's event with with a local chapter of the progressive Indivisible movement.

"The way we're treating people seeking asylum here is absolutely atrocious," Hauth said. "It's not why I served in the military. It's not the kind of America we should have." The vigils take place amid growing criticism of the conditions in detention facilities.

United Nations' human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the family separation and inhumane conditions in the facilities "should never happen anywhere." The New York Times reported massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of undocumented communities could begin as soon as Sunday.

Officials said the Trump administration may be executing the raids as a show of force to discourage families from crossing the border, according to the New York Times.

Before the vigil, a series of speakers took the stage, including Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat, the only member of Congress born in Central America; Ruby Corado, the founder of LGBTQ+ immigrant support organization Casa Ruby; Hope Frye, an immigration attorney.

Torres called on law enforcement officers to stand up for what is right and urged protections for whistleblowers: "We need more of them to come forward and tell us what is really going on." Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services, shared her story of fleeing the Sri Lankan civil war with her family when she was an infant.

So many immigrants, she said, just want to live safe and normal lives in the U.S.

"We admit them not because they are American," she said, "but because we are American." After faith leaders spoke to the crowd, they gathered on stage with photos of immigrant children who have died recently.

Later, organizers led the crowd in singing "This Little Light of Mine," while people waved their electric candles in the air.

Meanwhile, President Trump has made his hard-line stance on immigration an integral part of his presidency and has promised to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to curb the flow of migrants from Mexico and Central America.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden faced a protest Friday in Dover, New Hampshire, during an election campaign event by a small group of demonstrators angry over the deportation of undocumented immigrants during the administration of former President Barack Obama.

The protesters held paper signs that read: "We haven't forgotten 3 million deportations." The signs were referring to Biden's role in the administration of former President Barack Obama, which deported nearly 3 million people.

Biden, who has been leading the polls, was showing signs of struggling with black voters after Senator Kamala Harris, also seeking nomination Democrtaic nomination for the 2020 presidential election, challenged his opposition to school busing in the 1970s on the second night of the first Democratic debate in June. Ms. Harris' mother was Indian and her father, a Jamaican.