Former President Obama did face a crisis at the southern border, and he did deal with a mass influx of immigrant families and unaccompanied minors, and Obama did what he thought was best.
Trying to paint President Trump as evil for taking similar actions as former President Obama was always a dumb move and was always bound to backfire, but we didn’t know how dumb until now.
The Huffington Post reported that after an hour and a half of protesting in the building’s lobby using megaphones and signs, Philadelphia police arrested 6 activists from the group. When police arrived, undocumented families left the building to avoid being arrested and potentially sent into ICE custody. The protest continues in front of the building, but so far, no one from Joe Biden’s campaign has responded to the group.
PREVIOUSLY: A group of families whose loved ones were among the 3 million people deported under the Obama administration will hold a sit-in at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Philadelphia on Wednesday, saying they’ll refuse to leave until they receive an apology from the former vice president.
The group counted roughly 40 families and is organized by New Jersey-based immigrant rights group Movimiento Cosecha. They plan to ask Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to commit to a progressive immigration platform and acknowledge the pain caused by deportations under Ex-President Obama.
Obama set a record for deportations, although he narrowed his focus later in his presidency to removing convicted criminals, people previously removed from the U.S. and recent border-crossers. (A change in how removals were counted also accounts for some of the record.)
Although Obama also pressed for immigration reform and took steps to broaden protections for some migrants, at the time activists criticized his administration for its deportation figures and expansion of detention, including for families.
“We can’t ignore the fact he was complacent to Obama’s vicious deportation machine,” claimed Catalina Santiago, the media coordinator at Movimiento Cosecha. “He is shamelessly ignoring the countless families he destroyed.”
