“Not One More” Week of Action Protests Immigrant Detentions and Deportations, June 24 to 28
Five New Hampshire faith-based and social justice advocacy organizations will hold a “Week of Action” June 24 to 28 to call on the Obama Administration to halt the detention and deportation of immigrants who have not committed serious crimes and would be eligible for the “path to citizenship” which could become possible through the passage of immigration reform legislation.
The Week of Action will include prayer, fasting, vigils and educational events in Nashua, Dover, Durham, Manchester, and Concord. The New Hampshire groups will also join other New Englanders at a vigil outside the regional office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Burlington MA.
“The Administration and ICE have stated repeatedly that their priority is detention and deportation of serious criminals, but according to the 2012 statistics, 45% of those who were deported had no criminal convictions at all,” said Eva Castillo, Director of the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. “Many more had been convicted only of minor crimes, like driving without a license.”
“Deportations are tearing New Hampshire families apart,” said Nancy Pape of the United Church of Christ Immigration Working Group. “According to ICE’s own data, 23% of the immigrants they deported between July 2010 and September 2012 – 205,000 deportees – had U.S. citizen children. Many more had non-citizen children.”
The “Not One More” Week of Action is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, Granite State Organizing Project, United Church of Christ New Hampshire Immigration Working Group, and NH Citizens Alliance.
The schedule of events includes:
Tuesday, June 25 - DOVER - Vigil at Strafford County House of Corrections, an ICE Detention Center, 266 County Farm Road, Dover, from 5 to 6 pm. (Contact: Maggie Fogarty, mfogarty@afsc.org, 603-988-7115)
Tuesday, June 25 - DURHAM - Film showing and discussion (“Lost in Detention,” a PBS Frontline documentary) at the Durham Community Church, 17 Main Street, Durham. (Contact: Rev. Mary Westfall, 603-868-1230)
