Vermont Business Magazine Activists from around Vermont will join in nationwide protests against family separation outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Williston onSaturday, July 28, 2018, 10 am, they announced in a press release Monday. The Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge in California to reunite parents and children separated under its "zero-tolerance" policywithin 30 days. That deadline isThursday, July 26.As of Friday, July 20, the Trump administration had only reunited 364 of the 2,551 children separated from their parents.
“The US government, ICE and any other agency involved must be judged as abusive parents and held accountable for traumatizing/terrorizing innocent children. Their actions are abhorrent and immoral,” said Debra Stoleroff of the Plainfield Community Resistance subgroup.
Held in conjunction with the National Day of Action to Keep Families Together. We are joining and have elaborated on their demands.
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/families-belong-together-we-demand-justice
-
1. We DEMAND an end to laws and policies criminalizing migration and those seeking asylum
-
2. We DEMAND immediate reunification of all children with their families (including those who have been deported)
-
3. We DEMAND humane best practices that do no harm and that families be offered counseling and any other voluntary services they require to deal with the trauma inflicted on them by our government.
-
4. We DEMAND members of this administration, agencies and contractors be held accountable for breaking international treaties and our own laws that have led to this humanitarian disaster.
-
5. We DEMAND the U.S. government abolish ICE.
“The US government has already stopped allowing actual adjudication of asylum cases.Now they are trying to reverse asylum claims previously granted. If allowed to continue on this course, I believe the issue of family separation could bleed into the terrible, indefinite holding of families in concentration camps at the border and on military bases,” said Nancy Braus of Brattleboro-Area Not In Our Name.
“It is our job to maintain and increase pressure on those in power,” said Rachel Siegel, Executive Director of the Peace & Justice Center.
This event was conceived of and primarily planned by individuals across the state with the support of co-sponsoring organizations including Vermont Interfaith Action, Plainfield Community Resistance subgroup, Peace & Justice Center, and Brattleboro-Area Not In Our Name.
This is a nonviolent protest. Some folks may risk arrest, they said.