Washington, D.C. – Under the Biden-Harris administration, ICE and CBP have continued to enforce their racist and cruel anti-immigrant agenda by deporting over 26,000 immigrants, including thousands of Black immigrants to countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Jamaica. Today, immigrant youth from United We Dream gathered outside the DC ICE building to demand President Biden immediately end ALL deportations and ensure everyone who has been deported can return.
Please see below for photos. All photos credit to United We Dream.
Cynthia Garcia, National Campaigns Manager for Community Protection of United We Dream, said:
“President Biden campaigned on the promise that his administration would end the inhumane Trump and Obama-era policies that allowed ICE and CBP to deport millions of people over the last 12 years. Having a loved one be torn from your family is a trauma no one should have to endure. Yet, within the first few weeks under the Biden administration, we have witnessed the perverse and racist legacy of ICE and CBP play out in real time, as ICE continues to deport hundreds of Black immigrants, tearing apart families and communities.
While the Biden-Harris administration has remained silent as deportations amass, immigrant youth and our allies refuse to. We know that DHS has full discretion to stop ICE and CBP from carrying out any more deportations. As the Biden-Harris administration work to deliver a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., we will continue to raise our voices and demand President Biden uses every tool at his disposal to end all deportations and stop any further trauma and injustice inflicted against our communities. There is absolutely no time to waste.”
Dany Vargas, United We Dream leader in Washington D.C., said:
“Ripping people from their families, their homes and their communities are horrors ICE and CBP choose to carry out, not because they have to, but because they want to. I refuse to stand by as these injustices continue against more families like my own. As someone who has been detained by ICE and witnessed her brother and father be deported, I know the pain my family lives with every day is also felt by millions who continue to suffer in this way.
That’s why I, alongside other immigrant youth, feel it’s important to use our power to draw awareness to the mass deportations that have continued in recent weeks and put pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to step up and end these cruelties right now. With lives on the line and deportation flights taking off each week, we must stand against these cruelties at all costs. When we speak out against the administration’s continued silence, we plant the seeds needed to create the change our communities need and deserve.”
