Monday, April 07, 2014

Demonstrations Held in 40 US Cities Against Deportations

Sat Apr 5, 2014 11:15PM GMT
presstv.ir
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, covering May Day 2008 in the United States in Detroit.

Watch this Press TV report on national demonstrations against United States immigration policy by clicking on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/05/357352/deportations-demos-held-in-40-us-cities/

A large number of immigration advocates and activists have held demonstrations across the United States, demanding President Barack Obama stop deportations, which have surpassed two million under his administration.

Saturday's marches, vigils and demonstrations were held in more than 40 American cities, the Associated Press reported.

Organizers of the national "Day of Action" initiative said Obama has the executive power to put a freeze on deportations that is separating undocumented immigrants from their loved ones.

In the city of Eloy in Arizona, a number of activists and protesters traveled more than 96 kilometers (60 miles) from Phoenix to gather in front of a federal detention center.

According to organizers, many of the protesters’ relatives have been held inside the prison for over a year.

Obama has softened his position on the issue. In March, the president asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to review the administration’s deportation policies.

In an interview with Press TV last year, Abayomi Azikiwe, political editor at Pan-African News Wire, said that the US immigration laws are “punitive.”

The laws are set up in a way “that Homeland Security forces, through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are able to violate basic, fundamental norms of human rights and civility inside the United States,” Azikiwe said.

The American “people have no idea that they are being targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he stated.

Azikiwe also said that immigrants in the US “are heavily exploited” in the workplace.

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