More than 200 leaders filled today’s public field hearing hosted by Congressman Joaquin Castro on mass deportations and the proposed ICE detention center in San Antonio. Congressman Castro was joined by TX State Senators Jose Menendez, Roland Gutierrez, TX Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, and San Antonio City Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran, along with other local elected officials.
San Antonio ranks fourth in the country for deportations. Clergy and local leaders spoke about the toll that immigration detention and deportations are taking on San Antonio families—separating parents from children, creating fear in neighborhoods, and leaving children to carry the pain and uncertainty of not knowing what will happen to their families.
Fr. Jimmy Drennan, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church and a COPS/Metro leader, shared several stories, like Kimberly, who, at 8 months pregnant, had ICE agents storm her door without an arrest warrant; they entered the home and took her husband, who was moved from one detention center to another until he was deported. Kimberly, who now works day and night and worries about children living with the fear of their families being torn apart and the toll deportations and detentions are taking on our local communities.
“The people that they are abusing, the people that are being locked up, warehoused and shipped out like packages, if they (ICE) could see in these people their own family, it would come to an end,” Fr. Drennan said. “But they have been stripped of their humanity.”
The families and community leaders who spoke today demanded to be heard. They brought forward the stories of parents detained, families separated, and children living with the pain and fear of deportation—and they demanded that these stories be placed on the public record.
“The proposed Eastside detention facility would extend these abuses deeper into our community,” Congressman Castro said. “… Dilley trailer prison camp has locked away thousands of children and families without proper medical care, food, or schooling. While this is often seen as a federal issue, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been complicit in Stephen Miller and President Trump's mass deportation-for-profit campaign. Texas has become the testing ground for the worst of these abuses."
"We actually got a call from a sexual assault nurse examiner last year who had done a rape kit on a woman who said she was sexually assaulted in an ICE detention facility,” Kristen Etter, the director of policy and legal services for Texas Immigration Law Council. “But the local prosecuting authorities would not accept it because they said they did not have jurisdiction over that particular ICE facility that was operated by private contractors.”
COPS/Metro leaders came to the hearing with three clear demands: an end to mass deportation, protection for San Antonio families, and a stop to the proposed ICE detention center.
COPS/Metro leaders stood together today and demanded action. We will not let the stories of detained parents, separated families, and hurting children disappear into silence. We will put these stories on the public record, demand accountability, and keep organizing and working with our elected leaders to end these inhumane acts.
During San Antonio Field Hearing, Castro, Local Leaders Demand Accountability For ICE Operations And Proposed Warehouse, Office of Congressman Joaquin Castro, 20th District of Texas
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