June 9 –Protesters demanding “Free Pablo Now” gathered at the ICE
concentration camp in Hudson County,
New Jersey today. This is where Pablo Villavicencio is being held for
immediate deportation. ICE cops grabbed Pablo when he delivered a pizza to
the Fort Hamilton army base in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn after military police at
the base turned him in.
About 40 people from a number of groups turned out today to the prison in
Kearny, NJ. It was an armed camp; the prison was sealed off by some 300
yards (length of three football fields); cops patrolled and police cars
repeatedly drove by as protesters gathered at the nearest gate outside the
facility.
Pablo is scheduled to be deported on Monday. He is being denied all
due-process rights even though he was in the process of applying for a
green card when he was picked up. Pablo is from Ecuador and has lived in
the U.S. more than ten years. He has two small daughters. His wife, Ms.
Sandra Chica says. "It is cruel. They're going to separate my daughters
from him. He was supporting the family. Now, I'm going to be by myself,
along with two kids.”
Demonstrators today came a number of groups. They included “Resist the
Deportation” from New Jersey. There were comrades from The
Internationalist Group (IG), Revolutionary Internationalist Youth (RIY),
Hunter College Committee to Defend Immigrants and Muslims, and Class
Struggle Education Workers (CSEW). Also there were supporters of the
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), International Socialist
Organization (ISO) and a number of other protesters.
Speaking at the impromptu press conference and rally, Maeve Campbell said, “
“My name is Maeve and I am with the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth
and the Hunter College Committee to Defend Immigrants and Muslims. With the
Committee we have worked on a campaign to defend another immigrant who is
detained at this same facility, Aboubacar Dembele. In recent months we have
seen sweeping raids of workplaces in New York which left hundreds detained
and the largest single workplace raid in over a decade in a meatpacking
plant. These events are shocking but they’re not new. Under Democratic
president Obama 5.5 million undocumented immigrants deported.
"Why are they being deported? The capitalist state cannot function without
immigrant labor. So why are the capitalists terrorizing these communities?
For exactly that reason, to terrorize them into submission so they are
terrified to stand up and demand fair treatment. So how do we end this? We
can’t pressure the Democrats, we have to mobilize the power the power of
the multi-ethnic, multiracial working class.”
Mark Lance spoke for the Class Struggle Education Workers:
“We don’t think you can pressure ICE, or the government under Republican
Trump or Democrat Obama, who was the deporter-in-chief. We think our
allies are in the working class, in the hundreds and thousands and millions
in nearby Newark and New York City. Those are the allies of Pablo. The way
forward was pointed when unionized legal aid workers walked out of the
courts in NYC to protest ICE coming into the court house. As we go
forward, remember that our strongest and largest allies are the integrated,
multinational allies are the working class.”
Signs from the IG, RIY and CSEW included:
Free Pablo Now!
Stop the Deportations
ICE jails out of NY and NJ!
US War Machine kidnaps Immigrants,
Terrorizes World
For Workers Action to Stop the Deportatoins
Yes, Pizza and
so much more is
brought to you by
immigrants—
Stop the Deportations!
