Press Release from American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Contacts: Elissa Steglich, American Friends Service Committee, 973-854-0268
Chia-Chia Wang, American Friends Service Committee, 646-509-3860
Record Deportations under Obama a Sign of Lost Moral Grounding
Press Release from American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Contacts: Elissa Steglich, American Friends Service Committee, 973-854-0268
Chia-Chia Wang, American Friends Service Committee, 646-509-3860
Record Deportations under Obama a Sign of Lost Moral Grounding
[Newark, NJ, October 19th 2011] Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security announced that the agency deported more people from the United States during Fiscal Year 2011 than ever before. Nearly 400,000 immigrants were removed from communities across the United States, the largest number in the agency’s history.The announcement from DHS came on the same day as PBS aired “Lost in Detention” produced by Award-winning journalist, Maria Hinojosa, who will investigates the devastating consequences of the country’s failed immigration system, including the private prison system where immigrants are held under inhumane conditions for profit.
The repressive dragnet operations conducted against immigrant communities by the Federal government continues to devastate communities and tear families, leaving a trail of terror behind. “What’s rarely talked about is the ultimate consequence and human cost of detention and deportation: poverty, family separation, children growing up without parents,” observed Chia-Chia Wang of the American Friends Service Committee.
For administration officials to tout high record numbers of deportations is not a sign of “smart and effective” enforcement. When agents descend on communities, breaking in doors, handcuffing mothers, arresting workers and deporting students and it’s announced as a sign of progress, this is an indicator that policy makers have lost their moral grounding when addressing the issue of immigration. Sadly our country has turned into a deportation nation.
Earlier this year several governors and state legislatures withdrew their support from participating in controversial operations such as so-called “Secure Communities” Program (S-Comm) for fear that the Program promoted racial profiling.
The American Friends Service Committee urges the Obama Administration to halt the deportations and end the state of siege immigrant communities have faced for many years.
