Biden apology sought for Obama-era deportations
Immigrant rights activists said they staged a protest at presidential candidate Joe Biden’s Philadelphia campaign office on Wednesday, demanding the former vice president apologize for the roughly 3 million deportations of illegal immigrants that occurred under the Obama-Biden administration.
Along with an apology, members of Movimiento Cosecha — including four from Massachusetts — called for Biden and the other two dozen 2020 presidential hopefuls to sign their “Dignity Plan” that asks candidates to end all detentions and deportations on their first day in office, to offer immediate legalization for the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, and to provide a family reunification program. Six people were arrested and protesters were removed from the building, Movimiento Cosecha said on social media.
Cata Santiago, a spokeswoman for Movimiento Cosecha who was in Philadelphia for the protest, said their demands are “the very basics that our community deserves.”
“We basically had the responsibility to not allow anyone to forget the Obama-Biden legacy and how there were 3 million people deported,” Santiago told the Herald. “Beyond the statistics we know there are experiences, there’s trauma, there’s impact. … We had families share those stories of what it means to lose your best friend, the love of your life, your son to deportation, and what it means to have that empty hole in your heart.”
Santiago said activists want Biden to apologize for “having remained complicit to the deportations under the Obama administration.” She said no one from Biden’s staff came to see the protesters. Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden defended the Obama administration’s record on deportations during the second night of the first Democratic presidential primary debate in June.
“President Obama I think did a heck of a job. To compare him to what this guy’s doing is absolutely — I find close to immoral,” Biden said in a jab at President Trump.
Wednesday’s protest came amid infighting among House Democrats. Progressive U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria OcasioCortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib voted against an emergency border aid package in June, saying they couldn’t give more money to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol — sparking an ongoing war of words with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.