Washington Post
By David Nakamura
May 2, 2014
On
his first trip to Washington this week, Elias Gonzales, 15, toured the
Lincoln Memorial and gazed from the spot where the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. delivered his
“I Have a Dream” speech.
Then
the Las Vegas teen made his way across town to the Lutheran Church of
the Reformation on Capitol Hill and prepared to engage in an act of
civil disobedience.
“I’m just here chillin’ in Washington, about to get arrested,” he wrote on Facebook.
The
eighth-grader, who has not seen his undocumented immigrant father since
2008, had come to the nation’s capital with his mother to pressure
Congress to support an overhaul
of immigration laws.
Elias
and six other minors, ages 11 to 16, along with adult family members
and supporters, planned to shut down the intersection of New Jersey and
Independence avenues
by sitting in the middle of the street on Wednesday afternoon. They did
not intend to move until officers handcuffed them and put them in a
police wagon.
The
action, organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), was
conceived as part of a broader escalation among immigrant rights groups.
They are pressing Congress
to act on legislation and President Obama to use his executive
authority to stem deportations of the nation’s 11 million to 12 million
undocumented immigrants.
Advocates
view the next few months as a crucial window of opportunity before the
midterm elections, so they have stepped up dramatic, in-your-face
demonstrations. Allowing
children to get arrested is a tactic intended to grab attention but
also fraught with risks: Can a 15-year-old, or an 11-year-old, really
make such a decision?
Organizers acknowledged they expected to receive criticism but defended the approach.
Deepak
Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, FIRM’s
parent organization, said FIRM has been working with minors for the
past year to teach them
about civil disobedience.
The
group brought in participants from the Birmingham “Children’s March” in
1963, in which children were arrested during a civil rights rally, to
speak to a group of young
FIRM members last year. In December, FIRM members younger than 18
occupied the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and
sang songs until a security officer asked them to leave, and the kids
pressed to get more involved, Bhargava said.
“The
children chose to do this. They will take the lead, and that’s a
dramatic shift in the level of risk-taking,” he said, noting that one
message to House Republicans
was one of electoral consequences among the next generation of voters.
“I think there’s something particularly powerful to have young people,
many of them citizens, participate in the movement.”
A
parent or guardian must sign off on the child’s participation. Staff
members promised they would provide legal counsel and pay expenses if a
child was required to go
to court.
‘We’re back’
As
Elias and the six other young people arrived with their families at the
Lutheran church on Tuesday for a day of training, FIRM staffer Mehrdad
Azemun showed a video
of the exchange in Cantor’s office.
“When we were leaving, we chanted, ‘We’ll be back, we’ll be back,’ ”
Azemun explained. “Well, guess what? We’re back.” He compared their
courage to other civil rights figures, including Rosa Parks and Gandhi.
The young people professed not to fear a night in jail, but they did have questions.
“Will this affect my college applications?” wondered Brian Sanchez, 13, of Phoenix, whose mother is an undocumented immigrant.
“I don’t know for sure,” answered Kate Kahan, another staff member. “You might have a misdemeanor. But it won’t be a felony.”
Although
FIRM had helped organize similar street blockades, including one last
September at which 104 adult women were arrested, the group had never
enlisted minors to
participate.
After
informing the Capitol Police of their plans, the organizers were
dismayed to learn that the underage protesters would be separated from
the adults upon arrest and
transferred to the custody of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, which deals
with juveniles.
While
the Capitol Police allow peaceful protesters to pay a $50 fine and be
released within hours, it was unclear to the organizers what the local
police would do with
the children. Organizers elected to go forward only after the parents
and children — who are members of FIRM’s affiliate groups across the
country — insisted they were unafraid.
Evelyn
Servin, 31, of Russellville, Ala., said her son Yahir, 11 — the
youngest protester — declared “I’m ready” when she explained the
situation to him.
In
2004, Servin’s husband, an undocumented immigrant, returned to Mexico
to apply for a visa to return to the United States legally. He was told
by authorities that because
he had lived illegally in the United States, he would be barred from
applying for 10 years. Two years later, he crossed the border illegally
and has reunited with Servin and Yahir, who are both U.S. citizens. The
family is fearful that he could be deported
but that hasn’t stopped them from actively protesting.
In
March, Yahir accompanied his mother to a demonstration at the Etowah
County Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., where seven people, including
Servin, were arrested after
chaining themselves in front of the deportation facility.
As
she was being led away by police, “Yahir hugged me and started crying,
and I started crying,” Servin recalled. “People inside the detention
center started banging on
walls. One person held up a sign that said, ‘We miss our kids.’ It
broke me.”
Time for action
During
the six hours of training, which took on the feeling of a studious
summer camp, the protesters practiced how to march to the intersection
and arrange themselves
on the pavement in a semicircle. Staffers took turns yelling at them
through bullhorns.
They
were taught how to deal with the police (don’t resist arrest) and how
to prepare for a potentially long wait in jail (eat a big meal).
Elias, the oldest of seven siblings back in Las Vegas, was selected as the team leader.
“Can we sing, ‘Obama, Obama, don’t separate my daddy from my mama’?” he suggested, eliciting laughter.
In
2006, Elias’s father returned to Mexico to seek a legal visa. (Elias’s
mother, Ivon, is a U.S. citizen.) But his father was denied, and Elias
has not seen him since
2008, when he was arrested trying to sneak across the border, Ivon
said.
“I was like, ‘Mom, where is dad at?’ ”
Elias said. “She was like, ‘I need to tell you something: He’s not coming back.’ ”
The
separation led to a divorce, and Ivon married another undocumented
immigrant who works in construction. They live with seven children and
two dogs in a two-bedroom
apartment. Elias helps care for his siblings, getting them dressed and
assisting with the cooking. He was missing a standardized test at his
middle school to attend the protest.
“I told three of my teachers, and they said, ‘Perfect,’ ”
he said. “Only my band teacher asked, ‘Are you sure you want to do
this? Because it could go on your record.’ I was like, ‘It’ll all be
worth it.’ ”
On
Wednesday, it was time for action and the group reconvened. Just before
noon, the church doors swung open, and they emerged into a steady
downpour wearing plastic rain
ponchos over white T-shirts that read “Stop Separating Families.”
Holding
a banner adorned with personal messages, the group marched down East
Capitol Street, where a phalanx of motorcycle police was waiting for
them, and turned left
in front of the U.S. Capitol, as more officers streamed into the area.
“The
youth united will never be divided!” they chanted at the intersection
of New Jersey and Independence avenues. The lunchtime traffic stopped as
the light turned red.
The
young protesters walked into the street, set their banner on the wet
asphalt, linked arms and sat down in a semicircle. A group of 18 adults
in red T-shirts quickly
followed, as the police moved to surround them.
One
by one, the adults, and then the seven young protesters, were placed in
plastic wrist restraints and put in two police vans. Among the youths,
Yahir went first, a
foot shorter than the arresting officers; Elias, his spiked dark hair
now drenched and matted down, was the last.
“Si se puede!” Elias chanted defiantly, meaning “Yes, we can!”
In
all, their civil disobedience shut down the intersection for 38
minutes. Three hours later, all of the protesters were released from
jail. The kids had been fingerprinted,
but none was charged with a crime.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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