Grand Rapids participates in National Day of Action to Defend Immigrant Families
Yesterday, about 40 people gathered near downtown Grand Rapids at the Justice For Our Neighbors office to participate in the National Day of Action to Defend Immigrant Families.
The crowd gathered to honor and hear the stories of immigrants who all acknowledge that the current immigration policies are unjust.
Natalie Guevara told those present that her husband was sent back to Honduras 3 months ago because of how the US government is applying immigration policy. Natalie and her husband are married, they have children and he was employed at the time of his deportation. The federal government is claiming he needed to obtain additional documentation in order to return to the US, but Natalie fears for his life as he has already been the victim of robbery in the politically unstable country of Honduras.
There were other families that addressed these issues and told their stories about how the current immigration policies were destroying families. Grand Rapids attorney Richard Kessler said he can not remember a time in recent decades when the immigration policy has been so devastating. “People are being arrested, detained, deported and out of the thousands of cases that are being heard in court, less than 8% are granted the right to stay. It appears that enforcement is going on at the expense of families.”
West Haven resident Cayla Roberts was sold to a Chinese cartel at the age of 14 by her own father. She was trafficked to the United States and caught at the border. For ten years, she has been bounced around the immigration system. In the meantime, she has married a US citizen and Air Force veteran, and graduated with two degrees from Western Michigan University. She has been denied “prosecutorial discretion” and the government is attempting to deport her to a land that she no longer knows, nor is safe for her to return to. Watch this video of Cayla telling her powerful story.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
This article fails to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. If they are here legally, then this is horrible. If they are illegal, then they brought this upon themselves.
Todd, if you watch the testimony of Cayla, she makes it clear that she came to the US through bethany Christian Services and their foster care program. She followed the rules, she didn’t get a job, she didn’t get a drivers license or drive, she has filled out all the necessary paperwork…….yet, she still faces deportation.
The immigration system doesn’t work for many people, whether they are documented or undocumented. The current policy is discriminatory and highly political. If you are from Cuba there are no questions asked, but if you are from Mexico then it is nearly impossible to get legal status.
Your either or position is narrow, inhuman and possibly racist. I suspect you are not a regular reader of this blog, but someone who takes a hardline position on this issue and takes any opportunity to engage in hateful attacks against immigrants.
“they brought this upon themselves.”
Yeah, because being born in shit conditions is totally their fault. Fuck off nationalist asshole.
Jeff, I read the article, didn’t watch the video its true. If her case is legal, she should be able to find a way to stay and if not, well you’re right, nothing is perfect and our immigration system doesn’t always work as perhaps it should. In that case, this is a truly sad fact.
I read your blog occasionally, not regularly. I do take a hardline on this subject after growing up in san diego and having illegals running down our street, hiding in our garage, leaving feces in our alley, and a variety of other distasteful things. I’m also a nationalist. The beauty of the usa is that we are all immigrants and all made up of different races. I myself am a member of the Choctaw nation and my stance has nothing to do with race or honoring indigenous people for I am the descendent of native people. It has everything to do with ruleof law and order and protecting our people. Globalism isn’t working in case you haven’t noticed! Disrespecting immigration laws is all part of the internationalist ideology. Internationalism and globalism are the enemy of the nationalist. I would think that you would understand this after reading all your articles about multinational corporations! These corporations want illegals here to force us to compete for wages. They can exploit the fear of the illegals to make them work for shit wages and in shit conditions. In turn, it forces our standards down. Its a horrible sham. Open your eyes!
The best case scenario for the illegal immigrants would be for the usa to annex their countries of origin. Primarily mexico. They would overnight become legal citizens and be entitled to all that we share. Including decent law enforcement, healthcare, schools, etc. So, you see, I don’t care about race or nation of origin. Anyone can be a citizen and I would rather welcome it! Of course noone will agree to this because the global capitalists and international communists benefit from our division and conflict. In fact they need our division to mantain legitimacy and function. I happen to think you are a racist. You support racist organizations and point fingers with such vigor that it creates suspicion as to what your objectives are!
Anon, you are obviously an ignorant yet useful tool of the globalists and internationalists. Enjoy your future of shit wages and shit conditions.
Todd, thanks for your clarifications. I am not a nationalist and am not particularly fond of borders, which is really irrelevant. If you nation we are a nation of laws, I’m not sure how you can say that with a straight face. We are a nation of the haves and have nots, where the haves use force and sometimes the law to maintain their privilege. The whole history of immigration law has made that clear. The Chinese were welcome in the US while they built the railroads, but once that was done Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act and deported thousands of them.
Mexicans were allowed to come by the thousands under the Bracero program for a period, but then the laws were changed to suite certain interests. In other words, immigration laws are always changing based on politics, not on human needs or human rights.
In the 1980s the household I live in was part of the Sanctuary movement, where we gave sanctuary to Central Americans fleeing the political violence in those countries. The US government would not recognize them as political refugees, so a whole movement of churches and communities began taking in people who were undocumented because it was a matter of justice.
I had a foster son who came to the US without papers. He was a torture survivor and he lived with me for four years because it was the right thing to do. For years I have been working as a human rights monitor in Latin America and with immigrants, both documented and undocumented because it is for me a matter of justice.
To your point of me being a racist because I support racist organizations……please name which groups I support that are racists. You can’t because I do not support racism and particularly White Supremacy. My eyes are open and I have seen the immense harm that US policy has done to immigrants and their families and I will continue to support efforts to treat all people with dignity.
Jeff, I want to first tell you that I do take a pretty hardline on illegal immigration because of my life experience. However, I’m not so rigid as to not be open to the possibility of changing my mind on occassion. If you’d like to meet up for a drink and educate me, I would welcome the opportunity to do the same! I love good dialogue and its something that is far too lacking in our society these days! That being said, i do believe in asylum for some. I’m not going to say our system is perfect, its not. However I find the usa to be far better than many of the third world countries I’ve visited. I welcome immigrants, for we are all immigrants. The difference is that nearly one hundred percent of the land south of the united states was settled by the spanish, who took a very different approach to the new world than did the british. At least in the united states nearly anyone (alb