In Act of Civil Disobedience, Ten are Arrested Outside Varick St. Detention Center
(New York, NY) Capping off a month of renewed momentum around immigration reform, a diverse crowd of nearly 100 New Yorkers rallied outside the Varick St. Detention Center today and supported the “Varick Street Ten,” a group of ten protesters willing to risk arrest. Chanting, singing, and waving signs, the protesters raised their voices against the continued deportation of 1,100 people daily while House leaders sit idly by, refusing to move an immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship to the floor for a vote.
Nearly 100 individuals—a diverse mix of immigrant families, faith and community leaders, and students— rallied outside of the detention facility, where immigrant detainees in New York are held for deportation, to call for immediate action on a bill and to stand with the Varick Street Ten. Today’s action comes on the heels of an increasingly intense month in the immigration reform debate, which included the following activities:
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A national day of action on October 5th, when more than 180 mobilizations and events took place in 150 towns and cities in forty states.
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An act of peaceful civil disobedience in Washington, DC, on October 8th, when eight members of Congress joined with 200 individuals in acts of civil disobedience, resulting in their arrests;
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An address by the President on October 24th, urging the House to move a bill forward for a vote and encouraging the public to keep up the pressure on Congress.
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The introduction of a House bill on October 2nd, H.R. 15, similar to the Senate bill that passed with wide bipartisan support in June.
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A renewed effort at bipartisanship, with Republicans Jeff Denham (CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) stepping forward as the first Republicans to join with Democrats in co-sponsoring H.R. 15.
Dozens of GOP House members have either publicly or privately expressed support for a path to citizenship. The problem is not, then, a lack of support among House members; the problem is House leadership that refuses to let a vote go forward.
Elsewhere across New York State, members of the New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign, which is coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition, will be holding other actions, including outside the offices of Rep. Richard Hanna in Binghamton and Rep. Chris Gibson in Kingston.
“We’re here today doing what New Yorkers are known for: speaking our minds and being impatient. And we have plenty to be impatient about,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “We’ve gone too many years with endless debate and demagoguery, with inaction and cowardice —all at the cost of our economy, our communities, and the suffering of 400,000 families a year devastated by deportation. We finally have arrived at a point in time when the Senate has come together across partisan divides; when many House members support reform; and when the White House has stepped up to move reform forward. But Speaker Boehner and the GOP leadership are missing in action. We’re here today to say enough already, and to stand with the Varick Street Ten, who are going to jail to convey the urgency of this cause.”
Below are quotes from leaders who participated in the action and risked arrest:
“The pain and suffering that thousands of our community members are enduring as a result of our country’s dysfunctional immigration policies must be stopped and remedied by an immigration reform that is humane and reflects our nation’s values around fairness and respect for human dignity,” said Angela Fernandez, executive director of Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights and board member of the New York Immigration Coalition. “That is why today I am participating in civil disobedience, to communicate clearly the need for immediate action on the part of Congress to pass humane immigration reform.”
“The House of Representative literally has the future of 11 million undocumented in their hands and frankly are holding them hostage by their lack of action on comprehensive Immigration Reform,” Bishop Orlando Findlayter, Chairman, Churches United to Save and Heal (CUSH). “Everyone agrees the system is broken but we have not done our part to fix this broken system. Today, I join with others in sending a message to Congress that we will not sit by without doing our part to force their hands to do the right thing. It is in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that I participate in civil disobedience on behalf of those who are marginalized because of their immigration status.”
“I have chosen to get arrested today for Mahmud Islam, a 13 year old Bangladeshi-American boy who lives in Queens with his mother and two-year-old brother,” said Mazeda Uddin, National Women’s Coordinator of Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL). “His father, Mohammad Khan, has been detained for nearly one year. Mohammad’s case is just one of many cases of unjust detention and deportation affecting the Bangladeshi community. I work with many mothers who have been separated from their husbands and children who have lost their parents. I have seen the pain and hardship our broken immigration system has caused. This suffering must end. That is why I am here today, to urge Speaker John Boehner to do what is right – allow a vote on immigration reform with a path to citizenship.”
“Our nation’s deportation practices have been kept in the shadows so that we don’t see the brokenness that our current policies produce. We don’t see the anguish, the terror and the tears,” said Sister Susan Wilcox. “But slowly, more and more, we are seeing and saying, ‘enough’. Now is the time for change. Today I am getting arrested for the Dreamers who have lived their lives in this country, some not even knowing until they graduated high school that they were undocumented. And for the Dreamer activists who stand up as undocumented in such a fundamentally American way, challenging our immoral and dehumanizing immigration policies. Their courage fills me and inspires my own activism.
Below are the names of the #Varick10 who were arrested today:
- Angela Fernandez, board member of New York Immigration Coalition and executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
- Bishop Orlando Findlayter, chairman, Churches United to Save and Heal (CUSH)
- Ariana Rosas, organizer, New York Immigration Coalition
- Sister Susan Wilcox
- Reverend Chloe Breyer, executive director, The Interfaith Center of New York
- Ellen Greely, The Interfaith Center of New York
- Angelica Clarke, New York Students Rising
- Sarah Melissa Duncan,
- Mazeda Uddin, national women’s coordinator, Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL)
- Felix Cepeda
The New York Immigration Coalition is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization for nearly 200 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees. The NYIC aims to achieve a fairer and more just society that values the contributions of immigrants and extends opportunity to all by promoting immigrants’ full civic participation, fostering their leadership, and providing a unified voice and a vehicle for collective action for New York’s diverse immigrant communities.
The New Yorkers for Real Immigration Reform campaign is a statewide campaign coordinated by the New York Immigration Coalition and endorsed by 170 labor, business, faith, grassroots and immigrant organizations from across the state. The coalition is calling for an overhaul of the immigration system to meet the needs of the economy and keep families together.
