Immigration Coalition Responds To Recent ICE Raids

An alliance of immigrant rights groups has released a statement regarding the ICE raids that took place today and yesterday.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), composed of more than 80 organizations, is speaking out against the raids and calling on Congress to reform what they call a “broken immigration system.”From the CIRC release:

“This far reaching raid and others like it have disrupted lives and terrorized entire communities. We are at a crossroads as a nation in deciding what kind of country we want to be and how we value family unity, community, and human rights. 

How many more immigrants must die at our borders and how many more children do we make orphans of before we fix our broken immigration system? The current broken system pushes hard-working families into the shadows of our society, and creates incentives for unscrupulous employers to take advantage of workers and taxpayers.

The stepped up arrest and detention of immigrant workers and family members who have been contributing to this country and their communities has only succeeded in polluting the problem and sending a terrible message to the nation and to the world. 

The time is now for Congressional leaders to act swiftly and boldly on passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that is fair and just, bringing immigrant workers out of the shadows of our society and onto a path to citizenship, and taking away incentives for low road employers to manipulate a broken system for profit.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition calls on the Bush Administration to put an immediate end to these immoral and inhumane public relations stunts.”

There is also a prayer vigil being held in Denver tonight at 5PM, outside of El Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores, an organization profiled here by Colorado Confidential.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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