Rep. Luis Gutierrez and several immigrant rights activists were arrested and briefly detained after staging a sit-in following a meeting with ICE officials in Chicago yesterday. The Congress member from Illinois joined demonstrators to confront immigration officials over the recent arrests of Dreamers and the pending deportations of several other undocumented immigrants from the area who should be low-priority, but instead have been swept up by ICE and could be torn from their U.S. citizen children and families:
Francisca Lino, a 50-year-old mother of six, lives outside Chicago and has been in the U.S. for nearly two decades. Lino is expected to be deported in July, according to a CNN report.
Miguel Perez Jr., a U.S. military veteran who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and has a green card, is awaiting a judge's ruling on whether he must return to his native Mexico after serving time in a state prison for a felony drug conviction.
Elvira Arellano was arrested and deported in 2007 after leaving a Chicago church providing sanctuary to take her case around the country. She was readmitted to the U.S. while she applies for protected status.
“The congressman decided he did not get the answers he was looking for from the regional director, and he's going to be staying inside until he gets answers, even if that means risking arrest," said Doug Rivlin, Gutierrez's spokesman [...]
"Their response was, 'We can't get you an answer today,' and if we don't leave, 'you will be arrested,' " Gutierrez told reporters. "We told them, 'Place the handcuffs (on us); we're ready to go to jail.' After they placed handcuffs on us, in moments, the bully kind of stopped being a bully and they took the handcuffs off of us."
He continued: "We accomplished our goals today. We stood up to the Department of Homeland Security and to Donald Trump's hatred and bigotry."
Last month, Rep. Gutierrez was among the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who were physically barred by members of Speaker Paul Ryan’s staff from entering a meeting with ICE officials over recent deportation raids terrorizing immigrant communities:
According to Gutierrez, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were scheduled to speak with the acting director of ICE on Feb. 14 in a meeting the congressman said was abruptly canceled and rescheduled for two days later.
At that point, Gutierrez said it was transformed into an invitation-only affair, and he was asked to leave by an aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
"In 20-plus years, I have never heard of the Republicans controlling what meetings Democrats can have with officials of the Executive Branch and never had a staffer ask me to leave a meeting to which I am entitled to attend," Gutierrez said in a statement following the incident.
Donald Trump said he would target only dangerous criminals and “bad hombres” for deportation, but in the case of Perez Jr., Trump is targeting a U.S. Army veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the line of duty. Trump has claimed that he’ll be a friend to vets, but instead of getting Perez Jr. the help he deserves, he’s set on deporting him.
"Look, there's a lie, and the lie keeps repeating," Rep. Gutierrez told CNN. [ICE claims] "they're going after criminals, they're going after the bad people in the immigrant community."
Rep. Gutierrez and others are demanding answers.