June, 19 2014, 11:55am EDT
Milwaukee Family Chains Together at ICE Office Demanding Release of Loved One, and Urging President to Halt Raids, Expand Relief Instead
Protest Happening Now at 310 E. Knapp Street, Milwaukee, WI
MILWAUKEE
The children of Manuel Lopez, a man caught in recent city-wide raids conducted by ICE joined with almost a dozen Wisconsinites, including Voces de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz, to chain themselves together at the District field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to condemn the raids that have separated them from their father since May 27th of this year.
"I just want my dad to come home," explains Brianna Lopez, age 11. "He's a good guy and I miss him a lot."
."My brother is a role model for me and for his children. People should see the way he'd give you the shirt off his back. It breaks my heart to see what his kids are going through without their father right now," adds Ruben Lopez, Manuel's younger brother.
The protest started at approximately at 6:00amthis morning at the ICE office located at 310 E. Knapp Street. The action was organized in response to the May 27th immigration raid in Milwaukee, and as part of the national campaign demanding that the President use his executive authority to stop deportations.
As Congress stalls on immigration reform and the President delays his own action, Wisconsin families have vowed to do all they can to stop deportation and detention as they witness what they describe as ICE spreading terror locally.
"If ICE is going to step up its attacks on families in our communities, we're going to step up our response," says Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. "It's obscene that the President is not only prolonging the suffering of people he claims to advocate for but is making it worse with sweeps that criminalize and intimidate our entire community. We all want to live in safe communities but spreading fear and distrust doesn't help that goal. It undermines it."
The protest is being broadcast live at https://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/06/19/milwaukee/ and on Twitter with the hashtag #not1more
Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin's leading immigrant rights group - a grassroots organization that believes power comes from below and that people can overcome injustice to build a better world.
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