Protests are underway demanding the release of 23-year old Daniel Ramirez, who arrived in the United States as a child and obtained protections under Obama’s Deferred Action program
Story Transcript
CROWD: (chanting)… JAISAL NOOR: For the first time, President Donald Trump, has taken a person covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, into immigration custody. Twenty-three year old Daniel Ramirez Medina, was brought into the United States as a child and given a work permit during the Obama administration, according to a lawsuit challenging the detention, in Seattle federal court. This is protest organizer Rolando Ovia. ROLANDO OVIA: We’re here in solidarity, and we demand that he be released, because he is someone that is very valuable in his community, and we are seeing this across the country, where we’re seeing attacks on immigrants, and we don’t want to stand idle. JAISAL NOOR: The DACA program was established in 2012, by President Obama to allow those brought into the country while young, to attend school and work legally. President Obama deported a record number of undocumented immigrants. Now those numbers declined towards the end of the administration. Trump has ramped up deportations again, with almost 700 undocumented immigrants detained over the past week. Daniel Ramirez Medina, was a, “self-admitted gang member”, says Rose Richardson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, in a statement. But lawyers for Ramirez said he unequivocally denies being in a gang. Ramirez has no criminal record, according to court papers filed in his case, he was taken into custody last week at his father’s home in Seattle, by ICE officers. A group of protesters gathered outside the detention centre to show their support for Ramirez. The DACA program protects from deportation, some 750,000 people who were brought to the United States by undocumented parents as children, sometimes called Dreamers. Trump has promised to crack down on the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. With Oscar Leon, this is Jaisal Noor. ————————- END
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