[[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]] Immigrant Rights Advocates and Families Denounce ICE Kidnappings

[José G. Herrera]

Press Conference

TODAY AT 11:00AM

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Fr. Jose Landaverde: (773)512-8015 

Immigrant Rights Advocates and Families Denounce ICE Kidnappings

Relatives of the victims have raised tens of thousands of dollars for ransom with little luck

 

WHAT: Press Conference to denounce the streak of kidnappings done by ICE

WHERE: 3446 W. 26^th St. Chicago IL 60623, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission

WHEN: TODAY, December 6, 2012 at 11:00AM

WHY:

Chicago IL: Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has been orchestrating a streak of Kidnappings in the Chicago land area targeting poor and working class communities. They have deprived their victims from any contact or communication with their relatives and for some have even refused their ransom.

 

Over $70,000 have been raised by poor immigrant working families desperate to have their family member released from the hands of ICE. However only a few have been lucky enough to have paid the kidnappers (ICE) for the amount requested for each individual. Father Jose Landaverde and the member of his Chicago faith based organization, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, returned frustrated and tired on Wednesday Dec. 5th after the closing of ICE building on Clark and Congress. Only half of the victims who had been kidnap were release after ICE collected their ransom.

 

Last week more than 36 workers had been arrested and placed in detention from the Chicago Pallet Company and possibly a dozen more in smaller “Kidnap” actions in nearby towns and places like:  a restaurant in Palatine, and the day laborers who were arrested in a parking lot of the fast food chain, McDonlald’s, on the North Side of Chicago.

 

Father Jose Landaverde stated, “a crime has been committed and the criminals are ICE and the victims are the workers and the families that are suffering physically, emotional and financially and the scars left on the minds and hearts of the children, especially during this holiday season.”

-END- 

As we begin to mobilize to stop plans to build a new detention center, every day people are kidnapped and disappeared  with no due process and no accountability. Last week ICE raided several workplaces in the Chicago region. The Mission were first respondents, as usual -- protesting downtown, negotiating releases on bond, supporting the families of those detained, and pushing for a moratorium on all raids and deportations. Stop by the mission to ask how you can support this work -- push the story into English-language media outlets, participate in demonstrations, help with translation and press release editing, educate your organization about raids and deportations.... the Mission is all volunteer and depend on small donations for their survival.

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José G. Herrera

(773) 632-9992