On April 28, Rights for All People / Derechos Para Todos (RAP) launched a campaign against unjust deportations that are shattering families, hurting communities, and wasting taxpayer dollars. With immigrants leading the way, we are calling on every person who shares our concern to join this effort.
Deportations are on the rise
Increasingly, the broken federal immigration system is having a destructive effect on our local communities. In the last two years, 800,000 people have been deported, many of them mothers, fathers or sons and daughters who pose no threat. Mothers are being separated from their children, husbands from wives, contributing individuals from communities—even when no laws have been broken. To be out of status in this country is a civil violation, akin to a traffic ticket.
And despite their best efforts and thousands of dollars to navigate the bureaucratic red tape of the broken federal immigration system, people are waiting 8, 10 or 20 years for their status petitions to be reviewed or resolved. During this time, many contribute to our communities by working hard for local businesses, volunteering in the community and participating in our childrens’ schools.
These families are our families, our friends, our neighbors. They are members of our community.
Profiting Off of Misery
Our tax dollars are being diverted from vital government services to tearing families apart. Between 2005 and 2009, for every dollar that GEO spent lobbying the government, the company received $662 in taxpayer funded contracts, totaling $996.7 million.[i] For years, GEO, the private prison corporation that runs the Aurora immigrant detention center, has profited hugely from lobbying. Their efforts wreaked havoc on African American families and communities through the so-called War on Drugs. Now they have turned to immigrant detention as their new “cash cow”.
And Wells Fargo Bank is a primary stockholder in GEO, earning stock dividends while also serving as a financial advisor to Wall Street, urging its investors to buy stock in GEO. The irony is that in the Denver area, many immigrants have accounts with Wells Fargo, a bank that has actively courted the Spanish speaking community.
Our Campaign
We ask the broader public (that’s you!) to act with us against deportation and an inhumane system of laws that criminalizes communities of color every day.
Please join us in this campaign!
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