ICE Targets Parents at Detroit Schools:

Advocates Call for Immediate Release of Hector Orozco and Resignation of Detroit ICE Enforcement Director Rebecca Adducci

DETROIT – At a rally today outside Cesar Chavez Academy in Southwest Detroit, dozens of community leaders stood in solidarity with families who had been stopped or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside local schools the previous day.

“As a community member I am outraged, and as a mother, I am heartbroken.  ICE has once again violated their policies, and stopped parents dropping their kids off for school.  The leadership of Detroit ICE is either unwilling or unable to control their agents, so that’s why we’re calling for the immediate resignation of Detroit ICE Enforcement Director Rebecca Adducci.  We need immediate accountability for this out-of-control department,” said State Representative Rashida Tlaib, who responded to calls for help at the school on Tuesday. 

Between the hours of 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM on Tuesday, October 16th, two families were approached while they were dropping off their children for school.  Hector Orozco was dropping his son off at Cesar Chavez Middle School, and is still in detention.  Advocates are calling for his immediate release to his family.

A second family was stopped just outside Manuel Reyes Vistas Nuevas Head Start Center.  The agent temporarily released the family to drop off their children, and told them that they would be detained at their home.  The family took refuge in the elementary school until advocates could intervene. 

The father, Jorge, explained, “We were taking the children to school, the same as we do every day.  The immigration agents stopped my car, and were about to arrest me.  Then my son begged them, ‘Please, don’t take my dad.  He’s just taking us to school.’  That’s when the agent told me to drop the children off and then come back to my house where he would be waiting.  It was terrifying.”

A firestorm erupted last year after half a dozen ICE agents surrounded Hope of Detroit Academy, trapping parents inside.  At the time, ICE promised strengthened enforcement of their ‘Sensitive Community Locations’ policy, which bars such activity except in extreme circumstances.

The rally was also supported by representatives from Cesar Chavez Academy, Vistas Nuevas Head Start, the UAW, the Detroit AFL-CIO, Latino Family Services, ACCESS, the Lutheran Synod of Southeast Michigan, Wayne State University Latino Studies, State Voices, the ACLU, State Representative Fred Durhal, and others.

To learn more about Alliance for Immigrant Rights & Reform Michigan, please visitwww.michiganimmigrationreform.org, follow them on Facebook at ReformImmigrationFORAmericaMI or on Twitter at @RI4AMichigan

Contact: Evan Major 313 -377-5795  evan@michiganimmigrationreform.org; Wednesday, October 17, 2012 – 10:00 AM

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