Over 100 people gathered at the Veach-Baley Federal Complex in Asheville on the evening of June 21 to protest the separation of families at the United States’ southern border by immigration authorities. Members of the BeLoved Community, a local intentional community that seeks solutions to homelessness, poverty, prejudice and injustice, organized the protest.
As part of a tougher “zero-tolerance” immigration policy announced by the Justice Department on April 6, adults detained at the country’s southern border are being prosecuted “to the extent practicable.” Since the Justice Department can’t jail kids, the policy has led to an increase in the number of family separations.
According to a fact sheet on the website of the Department of Homeland Security, children may be separated from adults in three circumstances: “These circumstances include: 1) when DHS is unable to determine the familial relationship, 2) when DHS determines that a child may be at risk with the parent or legal guardian, or 3) when the parent or legal guardian is referred for criminal prosecution.”
On June 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the separation of families at the border. Many of those attending the rally, however, said they felt the shift in rhetoric was merely that and offered no real solutions on how to reunite separated families or how indefinite family detention periods would work.
Protestors wrapped in emergency mylar blankets stood behind sections of fencing, referencing reporting on the conditions in which separated children are being held. Many hoisted signs declaring “No human is illegal.”
Rabbi Justin Goldstein of Congregation Beth Israel spoke to the assembled group. “If you are not an immigrant, then your ancestor was an immigrant, because people move. And since people move, we rely on societies of conscience and morality and compassion to welcome the stranger. The Jewish tradition has at its core the understanding that it is our responsibility as human beings to love the immigrant. To welcome the immigrant. To protect the immigrant. To give voice to those that don’t have voices. As citizens of a democracy, we have a responsibility to not just stand on the corner of our little mountain town, outside of a federal building, screaming into a microphone, but to call every elected official that you can to hold accountable every corporation that is building the facilities to cage these families.”
Event organizer and BeLoved community member Ponkho Bermejo told the crowd about outreach efforts to local Latino families. “You can come out to the rally and show support today because feel you want to be with people that agree with your beliefs,” he said. “But the real work begins tomorrow when you start doing something for your community and you start making a change in the way that you live.”
Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out raids in April in Western North Carolina, Bermejo said, BeLoved has established connections with those communities to distribute “Know Your Rights” literature.
“What we’re doing is letting people know how to take care of their communities. So when they come to a meeting, they take literature we have printed about “Know Your Rights” not just for themselves but to please take extra copies for your friends, for your family, for your neighborhood and share the information so that everybody can know. People start to follow that example and replicate it. That’s how it works,” Bermejo said.
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Amy Cantrell, founder of BeLoved Community addresses the crowd. Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Rabbi Justin Goldstein of Congregation Beth Israel addresses the crowd. Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
Photo by Cindy Kunst
LOL I need my cheap labor to keep my house maintained. Please catch and release them into the country and then look at the empty buildings when they don’t show up for their hearings LOL. Oh and please make sure to give them false SS numbers so they can get free stuff while Americans struggle too.
All I see is sell outs, traitors, and fools.
So, you have your binoculars pointed at the White House?
LOL leftoids will sellout anything for votes. Say where were they during the last administration? Oh that’s right nowhere.
I like Lulz’s admission of thinking of immigrants as subhuman ‘tax drawer uponers’
only good for domestic help, kind of like ummmm, slavery back in the day.
Hey Lulz, do people from non ‘Murica countries have souls?
LOL my parents were immigrants lulz. Difference is they were legal.
No, leftoids see these people as low skill and low wage. Democrats aren’t the party of labor anymore. Last elections proved that. Problem is instead of changing policy, leftoids are changing voters. It’s the only thing they can do because they have nothing real to run on.
Legal immigrants you say? Here’s a cookie then-
good for you.
Sadly, legal immigrants are victims of violence in our fine country,
based on how they look, speak, dress, eat, pray etc.
C’mon, you read the news.
A lady wearing a veil
a Sikh with a turban
a family speaking Spanish in a restaurant
Domestic terrorism is getting up in someone’s face, screaming GO HOME,
and when the victim points out your point about being here legally in a calm manner, well youtube has plenty of videos about what happens next. Violence sometimes ending in murder against legal immigrants.
Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback” late 1950’s resulted in hundreds of legal immigrants rounded up like cattle and forcibly deported. Many illegal immigrants were also deported,
but just to play the ‘what if’ game, what would you do if tomorrow you found out your parents had been deported even though they were ‘legal?’. Picture a 4am knock on the door from ICE and them ignoring your ‘papers’.
Point being our immigration policy is broke. Broke broke broke and the fringe far right only wants to make it broker a they fear Whitey (tm, r, all rights reserved) becoming a minority.
As for single mothers, take that up with the church as when you have sex and don’t wrap it up for your church telling you a 1$ latex condom will put you n hell, gues what happens 9 months later? Ta da! A baby!
LOL all those votes not for a sellout leftist were in fact looking out for their best interests lulz.
Oh looky here, a bunch of LIEberals who are all about open borders LOL. Until it impacts where THEY live lulz.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/opinion/trump-racism-liberals-suburbs.html
The Spanish-speaking confederates reported to Enos that persons noticed and displayed some unease with them: for example reporting that “Because we are chatting in Spanish, they look at us. I don’t think it is common to hear people speaking in Spanish on this route.” After the experiment, the confederates reported that other passengers were generally friendly to them but also reported that they felt people noticed them for “not being like them and being Latino.”
The claim that this is all about people “fleeing violence” (domestic, terrorist, gang or otherwise) is a lie.
If that was the primary impetus for these people to “migrate” out of their native lands they would seek asylum at the first reasonable nation they entered — which would be Mexico for most of them.
They don’t do this because Mexico will not give them welfare and other public benefits, and in many cases won’t let them in remain at all.
They come here to steal from the public, in short.
But let’s assume for the sake of argument that this is not the case — just for grins and giggles.
Then the question becomes one that’s even more-important:
Do you want to accept into this nation people who refuse to fight for their country to remove from it narco-trafficking, gangs and other forms of severe, pervasive violence?
I don’t and you shouldn’t either because there are already parts of this nation where that sort of violence and outrageous conduct is pervasive — like San Francisco, parts of Chicago and other cities.
Cut the crap folks — the immigrants we want are the ones that are willing to take on such challenges and defeat them, and those people have no desire to “migrate” anywhere; they are proud of their homeland and willing to defend it at whatever cost may come.
Those who are not in this group are why these turd-world nations are turd-world in the first place. They’re unwilling to stand up for their own country and for peaceful and prosperous living conditions there. They’re unwilling to fight if necessary and defend their own homeland, which means they’re also unwilling to fight for any other nation, including ours.
Those people are by definition the exact opposite of the sort of immigrant that our nation ought to accept.
These turd-world “migrants” want only one thing: Our money. They’re lazy and unwilling to bear personal risk to defend their own nation. They sacrifice nothing and demand everything from others.
They are the exact opposite of those who we should welcome into America.
Every one of those turd-world citizens ought to be sent home, turned back at the border and told to fix their own damn country. At best we should offer them a rifle and box of ammunition with which to do so — but never, ever, until they do so should we even contemplate allowing them or any of their progeny in. They’re cowards to an individual and seek only the easy way forward, not the difficult (and dangerous) work of fixing that which they allowed to be broken in their own nation of birth, and in addition they brought more children into the very country they knew was a broken, violent land and yet are unwilling to fix.
You let those people in this country — any of them — and the gang-ridden, violent crap going on in cities around the nation today, including places like San Francisco (remember, a “sanctuary city”) where illegal invaders shoot citizens with impunity, will expand and engulf this nation — and when it does it will be your responsibility along with every single one of the politicians urging same.
Period.
Maxine Water’s said God is on their side LOL. I thought the loons don’t believe in God.
“Those who are not in this group are why these turd-world nations are turd-world in the first place. They’re unwilling to stand up for their own country and for peaceful and prosperous living conditions there. ”
Which tribe’s rolls are you on? The alternative is “which of your ancestors were terrible cowards?” but that seems impolite to ask.
Yeah, be careful there. He could be one of the turd-generation C-Laws.
Here is the truth about “Family Separation.”
There is no “humanitarian crisis” with separating kids from their parents who enter the country illegally.
There are literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of children who are “separated from their parents” because their parents are in jail (or prison.) It’s what happens when you break the law.
When you are detained prior to trial you go to jail. Your children, if any, do not get to go with you.
You are separated from your children.
The reason it happens is that you broke the law. If you wish to enter the United States legally then you are not separated from your children because you don’t come into the country until you, and your kids, are allowed in — legally.
So if you choose to break the law with your kids in tow, knowing damn well you’re breaking the law, and you get arrested, you should expect to be separated from your kids.
Period.
The entire responsibility for this outcome rests with the adult who made the decision to knowingly, intentionally break the law — and nobody else.
If I rob a bank and get busted, and am separated from my kids as a consequence, is it the cops fault? No, it’s mine — I decided to rob a bank, an act I knew was illegal, and I got caught. That is 100% my responsibility because I undertook a criminal act and it turned out badly for me.
That’s the beginning and end of it folks, and those who “side with” the politicians and others who are making a political spectacle out of this deserve not only to lose but to find themselves on the street, broke, hungry and soaking wet.
Those who run this crap deserve nothing but spit on their shoes and may everyone running this garbage with the intent of further flooding our nation with low-skill individuals who demonstrate an intent and desire to break the law as their first act in this nation burn in Hell, which is exactly where they belong.
But how on Earth do you expect loonycrats to win elections? They can’t stand on policy and they’re as dense as hell when it comes right down to it. What better way than to have illiterate 3rd worlders come into the fold. Just dangle handouts in front of them and promises of getting rid of those evil gringos lulz.
The photos in this article remind me of a famous line from Shakespeare’s play – Macbeth; “fair is foul and foul is fair.”
Just who are the “real Macbeth types” in this story? Well, ask someone to explain why in the US we do not allow citizens being jailed to bring their families to jail with them?
Um, because if a US citizen is arrested for a crime, their children are not held accountable for their parents’ crimes. Thus their children are not forcibly ripped from their parents’ arms screaming and crying and kept in cages oops I mean summer camps.
I don’t think boatrocker or Pete quite get the reality of the situation…they try to sound smart and snarky, but they just post empty words with no real insight or truth…Let me present my perspective another way:
Let’s be clear: Those coming here are not “immigrants”, not, “undocumented citizens”; they’re invaders plain and simple.
An “immigrant” presents themselves at a legal border crossing, explains their intentions, and requests a decision on entry, which they abide.
An invader claims they need no authorization nor will they abide the decisions of officials; they claim a right (which they do not have) to take what they want.
How do you stop invaders?
Order the border sealed, except at legal crossing points which are not US territory until you are past them, enforced by the military.
The Constitution not only authorizes this action it REQUIRES said action (Article V Section 4):
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
It is not an option or choice for the federal government to do this.
IT IS A DUTY FOR THE EXECUTIVE TO PREVENT THE INVASION OF ANY STATE BY FOREIGN NATIONALS. PERIOD.
No entry except through lawful means at a legal border crossing, period.
And yes, period means period. It means if necessary you shoot those who, after clear warning (which a fence plus a pointed gun certainly is, and admits no language barrier!) choose to attempt to proceed.
There is no due process right implicated in preventing an invasion.
A person coming here for the pure reason of accessing someone else’s economic wealth is in fact invading for the purpose of plunder. War is, in virtually every case, about plunder. The taking of territory is plunder. The taking of people (e.g. rape, assault, murder, etc) is plunder. The theft of things (e.g. oil, cars, money, etc) is plunder.
An invader comes for the specific purpose of plunder. Millennia of international law recognizes the right of nations to a border, to stop those who come for the purpose of plunder, and to enforce that prohibition by any means necessary including physically stopping said person by causing them to cease to be alive.
Attempt to proceed across a marked border when there are rifle barrels pointed at you is a clear declaration of your intent to invade.
The solution to the problem of illegal immigration is to make clear that plunder will not be tolerated and it will be stopped. There is no due process right for someone who is in the process of invading another nation. Such an individual has in fact declared war on your nation and intends plunder upon it.
We both can, should and indeed must stop that. A wall, along with sufficient sensors to detect attempted breaches whether over or below, may be part of the answer but it must include, in any event, fair notice that attempts to plunder our nation will be repelled before the invader sets foot on our soil and must be enforced.
If that’s an example of insight and truth, I’ll stick with what I’m good at.
This decision might help you understand a little better what’s fair and what’s foul, Stan: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/ms-l-v-ice-order-granting-plaintiffs-motion-classwide-preliminary-injunction.
Well, thank you for that information, but we may want to wait for the final act. Thanks just the same Peter.
While you did not say so, am I to gather what you are advocating is something like this. Let’s say I have an office in the Federal building downtown Asheville. A group of adults along with minor children gather and overrun the security barriers and make it past the first defenses. We are unsure of their motives other than they want in. The Feds then arrest the adults while finding no documentation on any of the perpetrators. However, we can not separate the children from the adults because, why? I may be wrong on this, but I don’t believe we can find that in tested US law anywhere.
Or, let’s say we have the same example as above without adults, only teenage minors that are the perpetrators. Again, we are unsure of their motives other than they want in. Do we not have a juvenile justice system set up to accommodate sorting out what must be done? I don’t hear much bellyaching about that?
Why don’t we just take down all the NO signs on all the public and private property in Asheville, WNC, and this country? Would that satisfy the progressive ideology? As usual, I am confounded by the liberal ideology of “I want it both ways – fair is foul & foul is fair.” Or, said another way, “what I say is legitimate – what you say is illegitimate.”
There is a big NO sign at the border by the way. The progressives need to have “stones” enough to say, “take it down” or “let’s secure the border.” Which is it?
A judge who knows more about the facts than I do and more about the law than you do (presumably) has answered your arguments. Read the decision or don’t. I have no dog in your fight.
This editorial might help, too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-judge-says-trumps-family-separation-policy-shocks-the-conscience-we-agree/2018/06/27/438860c4-7a28-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html?
See, the disparity between the lock ’em all up types and true humans who know children in cages =wrong is due to fundamental lack of basic empathy skills on the part of the MAGA types which is seen as a sign of betacucksnowflakeliebraldemocrackkk weakness.
Some qualified ‘elitists’ with degrees call them sociopaths.
The ones you read about who run over protesters with their car in VA,
shoot black folks in Charleston churches or who accidentally kill a
Sikh wearing a turban as he looks all Moooozlim.
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/louis_d_brandeis_169458.