Activists Block Deportations in AZ

The Washington Times reports that immigrant rights activists shut down a court in Tucson, Arizona this week by preventing authorities from processing illegal immigrants who were to be sentenced to jail and eventually deported.

The activists had chained themselves to bus tires and to the court entrance early Friday morning and had been there for three and a half hours. The court canceled its proceedings for the day as a result of their protest.

The immigrants on the buses were being held under something called “Operation Streamline.” Operation Streamline is a practice where Judges sentence immigrants to labor in Arizona jails before they are deported, as a punishment for entering the country without following the rules. The program circumvents the 6th Amendment by denying people a trial by jury and turns the state into judge, jury, and executioner.

Activist Roberto Cintli Rodriguez said, quote, “When humanity is confronted with unjust laws, it is our responsibility to challenge them.” Friday’s move was a precursor to next week, when the activists plan to try to shut down the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Phoenix.

Marisa Franco of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said, quote, “Under the president’s administration, nearly two million families have been torn apart through detention and deportation. Our communities can no longer wait for the president to rediscover his moral compass or for Congress to actually do its job. We will do what any mother or father would do and keep our families together by preventing ICE from being able to tear them apart.”