AN immigration rights protest rally in front of the White House went sour after U.S. Park Police arrested nearly 150 people; among them immigrants, labor and religious leaders, elected officials, and numerous Fil-Am activists.
The rally on August 28, billed by several human rights organizations as the “National Day to Fight for Families,” started out peaceful but was staged as one of the largest civil disobedience protests in immigrant rights history.
CASA de Maryland and CASA de Virginia, two leading non-profit sister advocacy groups dedicated to helping immigrants, organized the crowd of hundreds in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices in Washington, DC. Carrying large banners and chanting for justice, the protesters called on the Obama administration to stop deportations and change current immigration policies, which directly affect many of the 11.7 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.
The number of deportations during Obama’s term has risen to almost two million, even more than the amount under George W. Bush’s administration.
“With President Obama inching closer and closer to his self-imposed timeline of the end of the summer to announce executive action he will take on immigration, every opportunity we take now to call for the change we need becomes ever more important,” said Ben de Guzman, the co-director for programs at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA).
Fil-Am Christine Poquiz, 30, from San Diego, Calif., was among the 150 protesters arrested at Lafayette Park across from the White House last Thursday. Wearing a white shirt with the words “Not Your Model Minority,” she recalls chaos, police, and people being ordered to move out of the area. She and the other activists were taken into a detention facility and released hours later after receiving a fine for “unlawful demonstration.”
“I volunteered to participate in this mass action because it is very important to me that we highlight the fact that Filipinos are adversely affected by our nation’s broken immigration system,” Poquiz, a Reproductive Justice Fellow at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), told Inquirer. “We need to speak up.”
When asked about her involvement with immigration rights as a Fil-Am, Poquiz further explained, “Filipinos are disproportionately impacted by the long waiting periods for family members to be reunited. The Philippines has the longest waiting time of any country because of the outdated visa system in the U.S. Some of us have been waiting over 20 years.”
President Obama has taken steps forward in the immigration rights debate with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which protects undocumented youth from deportation, allowing them to stay and work in the country.
But to many human rights activists, like Poquiz, it isn’t enough.
“We cannot afford to be indifferent while families are being separated and unjust immigration laws are destroying our countries,” she said. The U.S.-born daughter of immigrants, Poquiz believes in political education that moves people to act. She is especially devoted to justice for Filipina women who work as domestic caregivers and are subject to violence and abuse.
“Domestic caregivers face an additional barrier because it doesn’t count towards eligibility for citizenship the way other work does. We want the President to immediately address these two issues,” she said.
Poquiz has participated in several protest actions before, including a fast for immigrant women. Last week’s rally was her first time in a large-scale civil disobedience protest.
“I know I’m very privileged to be able to participate in this civil disobedience and being safely detained and released in the same day,” she said. “It was an amazing experience to go through with my brothers and sisters in the struggle, particularly all the fierce AAPI women who got arrested alongside me.”
Many other APA civil rights groups were also present at the rally, including the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA).
AAJC posted a recent article from the Washington Post on its site discussing the importance of Obama’s decision for executive action regarding legal immigration. It is an issue that affects millions, from minority families to the undocumented at-risk.
“Though the efforts to relieve pressure on some of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants are expected to be the centerpiece of the president’s action, the administration also is weighing measures that would streamline the legal immigration system by reducing huge backlogs of foreigners in line for green cards, denoting status as legal permanent residents,” the article by David Nakamura states. “Asian American advocacy organizations have focused on such changes because, other than Mexico, the countries with the longest waiting lists of people trying to join relatives in the United States are the Philippines, India, Vietnam and China — with delays stretching as long as two decades.”
(With reports from Inquirer, The Washington Post, and AdvancingEquality.org.)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek September 3-5, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
