Democratic Senators Call on Obama to End Deportation Raids on Women and Children

Members of the immigration advocacy group CASA de Maryland rally outside the Supreme Court. (Susan Walsh / AP)

Nearly half of all Senate Democrats have urged President Obama to stop deportation raids on women and children. Advocates expressed fears that the raids could resume this weekend.

The Guardian reports:

A multi-state round-up of Central American families three weeks ago caused alarm and anger in Latino communities and a political backlash which continues to resonate, with the Obama administration offering no indication that it would change course on its policy of prioritising recent border crossers even if they pose no apparent security threat.

On Friday, 22 Democratic senators sent a letter to the president in which they expressed “serious reservations about these ongoing immigration raids”, adding that they were “deeply concerned that in its eagerness to deter additional arrivals from this region, the Department [of Homeland Security] is returning vulnerable individuals with valid protection claims to life-threatening violence.”

The letter continues: “It is important to evaluate this as a humanitarian and refugee crisis involving a vulnerable population and not strictly as a border security and immigration enforcement matter. Targeting families contradicts the administration’s repeated commitment to focus its enforcement resources on removing felons not families… Given the particular risks faced by these mothers and children, the tactic of using widely publicised, aggressive removal operations – often in the wee hours of the morning – is shocking and misguided.”