The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 15, 2012

Activists Protest Resumption of Controversial Immigration Policy in New York 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


 
Protesters rallied in New York City on Monday to oppose the resumption
of a controversial federal immigration enforcement policy that requires
local police to forward fingerprints of every person they arrest to the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The program, Secure Communities,
allows federal immigration officials to pursue deportation against those
found to be undocumented or a non-citizen with a criminal record. New
York Gov. Andrew Cuomo suspended involvement in the program last June
but it goes back into effect today. Juan Martinez is with New York's
Project Hospitality.

Juan Martinez: “This is going to harm us a lot. We can no longer
calmly go to work. We have to take precautionary measures because we
know the program will be prejudiced towards us. We can no longer live
tranquilly, because we have children born here and what would happen to
them if one day they deported us? The government doesn’t care about
that, they just care about these times of raids because it brings them
more money."

 

.