Father’s Day protest outside Richmond ICE facility decries family-separation policy
RICHMOND – Several dozen people gathered outside an ICE detention center in Richmond with a special Father’s Day message for the federal government: Stop the inhumane and punitive policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
The two-hour event drew roughly 80 to 100 people. Protesters carried signs that read, “End policies of hate,” and, “Imagine if it was you.”
For event organizers Abraham Drucker, of San Francisco, and Megan Dooley Fisher, of Richmond, the message carried extra poignancy on Sunday, when families across the country celebrated Father’s Day.
Drucker, whose three children range in age from 18 months to seven years old, said the demonstration was about modeling “what it means to be a good person and a good citizen.”
“This is how I teach my children compassion and love,” Drucker said. “It’s to go out and fight for other people regardless of how hard it is.”
The duo, who are friends but not affiliated with any organization, have been reading, with increasing anxiety, reports of children separated from parents who were seeking asylum in the United States or who had attempted to cross the border from Mexico illegally, Dooley Fisher said.
A report in The Guardian on Saturday cites Department of Homeland Security figures showing that 1,995 minors were separated from 1,940 adults between April 19 and May 31 this year.
In a statement, DHS officials told the New York Times in April that the agency does not separate families at the border to be punitive or to deter parents from attempting the border crossing.
“As required by law, D.H.S. must protect the best interests of minor children crossing our borders, and occasionally this results in separating children from an adult they are traveling with if we cannot ascertain the parental relationship, or if we think the child is otherwise in danger,” officials said in a statement.
That’s unfair to the children and un-american, Dooley Fisher said. Those seeking asylum are legally entitled to due process, she said.
“We should hear them out and allow them to be with their family during that time,” Dooley Fisher said.
She and Drucker realize the demonstration isn’t likely to change any federal policies. It’s just a start, Drucker said, a first step. But, Dooley Fisher is hoping the group, and anyone else who wants to join their cause, can continue to put pressure on the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the West County Detention Facility in Richmond and contracts with ICE to hold detainees there.
There aren’t any children being housed in the center, but Dooley Fisher said the county shouldn’t be profiting from holding parents there.
“These are our neighbors, our classmates, our coworkers,” she said. “If we don’t speak out against these fascist actions, we’re complicit.”