CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—November 21, 2014. A year and a half after grassroots groups started the #Not1More campaign to move the President to halt deportations, end programs that criminalize immigrants, and expand the relief granted to young people in 2012, the sacrifice and courage of countless undocumented people who pressured the Administration has led to results.
“The undocumented immigrant worker community couldn’t suffer in silence any longer,” says Latino Union Executive Director Eric Rodriguez, who is the son of undocumented immigrants. “Our communities stood up and said, ‘Not one more.’”
The President’s announcement is the culmination of efforts to protect individuals from removal, separate local law enforcement from federal deportation efforts, and grant work authorization and relief from deportation to undocumented Chicagoans.
Rodriguez adds, “With ICE’s abusive actions being rejected by communities across the country, it was only a matter of time before the President had to act. Now, with more of our community safe, we have to fight for everyone left out. We’re all equally deserving whether the President has recognized it yet or not.”
While Latino Union organizers applaud the President’s relief for some undocumented immigrants, they sharply condemn the exclusion of at least seven million people who are left out by the plan.
“We need an immigration reform for everybody. Obama’s relief includes less than half of us,” says Jose Escutia, an undocumented member of the Albany Park Workers Center who will be able to legalize his status because of the executive order.
Source: www.latinounion.org
