ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Protesters gathered at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in downtown Rochester on Saturday to call for an end to ICE raids in Western New York.
“We demand an end to all deportations and the end to ICE,” chanted the crowd.
Stanley Martin, co-founder of Free the People Rochester, said, “We’re seeing ICE coming to our communities. Just last week, we saw ICE detain someone who is a U.S. citizen. So we are letting ICE know that we want them out of our communities.”
Iman Abid, also a co-founder of the group, shared her personal connection to the cause.
“I’m both Palestinian and a daughter of immigrants. And so for me, that’s actually super humbling to stand alongside my own community who stood here back in 2017 when we saw the exact same thing happen,” said Abid.
Martin, who immigrated from Ghana, expressed the fear his family experienced.
“My mom is an immigrant. I’m an immigrant. I grew up in Ghana. I really, really understand what it’s like to live in fear. It took decades for my mom to finally get the paper she needed. And in that time, we were always afraid of ICE. We were always afraid of deportation. So to see three over three, three, around 300 people here, it just it’s really comforting,” said Martin.
Protester Grania Marcus voiced her hopes for change.
“People who have worked and have paid taxes, and by the way, pay into Social Security, but don’t receive that because they’re undocumented. So their whole lives, they work, they pay into Social Security, and they don’t get (any), so I’d like to see people like that put on a track for citizenship because they completely deserve it,” said Marcus.
On Sunday, an ICE spokesperson sent the following statement to News10NBC:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions. That being said, ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy.“
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