CHIRLA raises awareness about new deportation initiative

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It has been two years since the Obama Administration took power. But the Mexican immigrant community says nothing has changed. The community feels it is getting a raw deal in the fight to maintain its American status.

"We've had almost 800,000 deportations of our communities," Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said. "We've had programs that require the collaboration between police and ICE go from 14 agreements to 664 agreements in less than two years."

With the help of CHIRLA, Salas tried to get their message out to the president himself on Thursday.

"He has to be a leader that protects the sanctity of family and that also ensures that we don't continue to tearing our families apart," said Salas.

Joining Salas at the conference were a small group of immigrants who spoke about their own experiences with government-imposed raids and the potential of deportation.

One of the immigrants, Dario Monsalve has lived and worked in San Pedro the last 23 years after fleeing from crime lords in Colombia. He was recently a target of an ICE raid in February after moving homes and may be forced to go back to his home country.

"I'm trying to stay in this country," Monsalve said. "I am suffering with the broken immigrant laws."

Today's conference was aimed at reaching out toward the president, but CHIRLA believes the rise in immigrant deportation numbers starts at the local level.

As part of CHIRLA's new initiative called "Mr. President reform takes courage" the coalition has promoted State Bill AB1081.

The bill would give California counties the option to participate in police/ICE collaborations.

"In order to get the state to pass this we need support from local law enforcement and elected officials who are the ones on the ground seeing what's happening," policy advocate Carl Bergquist said.

The bill was introduced to the State Assembly on Feb.11, with a vote to come later this year.

A representative with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on the press conference saying that all stats are available on the agency's website.