Bouncing group of Latino immigrants from “Juntos” organization came to the Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) building on Monday night, October 12, with strikes and shouts to support Latino immigrants, who had been deported and separated from family members.
“La familia Separados – separated families” was the defining slogan of the protest. “Juntos” along with members and allies came to accomplish this project by painting the words of a detained immigrant named Anna on the pavement: “We are human beings, risking our lives for our families and our freedom”.
According to the Department of Homeland Security data research approximately 450 000 people of Latin origin have been deported every year since 1995. The leader of “Juntos” immigrant community Jasmin Riviera along with the Philadelphia born and raised artist Miscelle Ortiz spread the word of pain of the Latino community to be heard by authorities.
Ortiz worked with “Juntos” for the last year, collecting stories of the immigrants here in Philadelphia, who have been affected by the deportation and gladly agreed to be interviewed: “My pieces represent families impacted by separation and deportation especially where they are left alone and the work is inspired by family members, who I interviewed and this depicts their struggle. Risking our lives is part of the deportation theme”, said Miscelle Ortiz.
“Familia Separados” is one project out of five in the city and this is a public work of art. There are another two pieces have been laid out near City Hall, painted words “Maria”, whose husband was deported and the other near Love park “Te amo”- “I love you”, which is the story of Suyapu, who also came with two children, who were crossing Mexican border and now are in deportation proceedings.

ICE is the agency that arrest immigrants and bring them here for fingerprints, take their photos and process to deportation. This is a processing center that detains them and afterwards takes them to a different prison in Pennsylvania. One of a type would be Burks county detention center, which is a prison, that incarcerates families and according to Jasmin Riviera violates the state and federal law and is illegal on every level and obviously not moral. “ICE staff will come to do their work tomorrow to deporting people, will be reading Anna’s words, who was detained in the Burks county detention center with her daughter, who is 13 over a year”, said Riviera.
The story of Anna is quite discouraging, as she was crossing the boarder with her daughter, she got caught and processed for deportation at Berks county detention center, which is about an hour and a half outside of Philadelphia. “Anna with 14 other women decided to do a work strike in the name of freedom. Berks Detention center had no staff to clean it and they actually had the families do all the cleaning of the facilities for a dollar a day, which is also labor violation as well”, said Riviera.

“Juntos” threw series of protests to support Anna and other immigrants afterwards they were released on the same day, but Anna was erroneously deported to Guatemala. Even though the judge did not finish with her case and needed her presence here, he ordered immigration services to return her back to the US so they could continue the trial. Her daughter at the end of this became suicidal, indicating that she wanted to end her life. “Anna was the last of the labor strikers, who was released finally, so she spoke to the crowd that day and here are her words on the ground we painted today”, said Erika Almiron, who is “Juntos” Executive Director.

Immigration is a human issue, the pain and despair of people, who made their journey to America, leaving behind their families and life. The challenge and the pain leave many isolated and afraid. The organizations, like “Juntos” set up to support these immigrants to do the work that helps them overcome the bias and prejudices so that they have a chance for a better life. Members of “Juntos” organizations are Latinos that have different immigration status: refugees, documented and undocumented people.
“Juntos” does all the work within the human rights and labor rights, and believes that every human being has the right to a quality education and the freedom to live with dignity regardless of immigration status. Leader of the “Juntos” community, Jasmin Riviera shared her expertise: “As an organizer my job is to develop leadership within the community so that people, who are affected by issues can speak for themselves as at the end of the day they are the experts. I always ask the question, if you got sick, would you send your friend to the doctor or will go yourself? We all should face a challenge and take responsibility when it comes to us”, added Riviera.
According to Riviera United States imperialism has created a poor economic circumstances and the violence between nations, so a lot of dictators in Latin America were trained in the United States in the School of the America, which is in Georgia. United States supported the Fall Democratically elected President for interest companies, who wanted to go to Latin America and have the cheap labor. “That is where the term Banana republic came from”, said Riviera.
“Banana” companies are normally US owned, and are located in politically unstable countries, whose economy is largely dependent on exporting limited-resource products. This politico-economic oligarchy controls the primary-sector productions to exploit the country’s economy. The movie “Harvest of the Empire” widely demonstrates this issue. Jasmin Riviera is experienced and outspoken advocate said: “Unfortunately most of our people live in deep poverty and don’t have a chance to get a visa. They can’t show assets and bank accounts back home to get a visa to come here, therefore they have to recognize violence in the United States”.
The distressing point is that when the question of criminalization rises up, many points to the Latino immigrants first and then others. However, according to the 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, 48 percent of Hispanic race, were immigration offenders, which is not the criminal case, as homicide.
To compare the data with the US Department of Justice, Blacks accounted for 52.5 percent of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, while whites account for 45.3 percent and other account for 2.2 percent, where Hispanic offenders are being counted together with white in the comparison. The offending rate for Blacks was almost eight times higher than whites, and the victim rates six times higher (Race and Crime report).
According to “Juntos” there is a major issue within the ICE agency: they overextend their jurisdiction collaborating with the police and the city authorities to catch undocumented immigrants. Juntos’s” recent success was to gain mayorial’s support and a promise not to participate in ICE, separating out suspects and reporting them to ICE. “We are so happy and proud to protect the rights of immigrants and this is a big achievement for us having police no longer collaborating with the ICE in Philadelphia”, said Ortiz.
The countries, where most of the immigrants have come from having high violence and less education are looking for better opportunities, future and respectful lifestyle with contribution to society. “As European immigrants came in 16 century to build a new life, new economy in the New world, so do Latinos want to be a part of it. America is the country of immigrants and need to provide the structure in the shape of comprehensive immigration reform to support all immigrants”, said Ortiz.