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Vol. 72/No. 19      May 12, 2008

 
California students protest
move to deport Vietnamese
(front page)
 
BY BETSEY STONE  
DAVIS, California—Students at the University of California, Davis rallied outside the student union April 23 to demand a halt to government plans to deport thousands of Vietnamese immigrants.

The protest, organized by Southeast Asians Making Immediate Change, began with a spirited march across campus with signs saying: “Stop Deportations!”; “Don’t Take My Mom”; and “Melt the ICE.”—referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under an agreement signed in January between Washington and Hanoi, some 1,500 Vietnamese who entered the U.S. after 1995, and who are labeled by the U.S. government as criminals, face immediate deportation. Another 6,200 who entered before 1995 have received notices threatening deportation to a third country.

“These are people who are here because the U.S. was dropping bombs on the country their mothers and fathers considered home,” said Rhummanee Hang, one of the speakers at the protest.

A line of students, representing people threatened with deportation, kneeled on the pavement with signs around their necks with the “crimes” considered grounds for deportation: “I’m being deported for writing a bad check”; “Deported for being accused of gang affiliation”; “I’m being deported but I’ve already served time”; “I’m being deported for not doing my taxes”; “Deportable for urinating in public.”

Similar protests took place the same day at campuses throughout California, including the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego.
 
 
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Legalize all immigrants now! Stop the raids and deportations!
Statement by Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate
Restaurant workers in UK protest raids, deportations
YS builds May Day actions on campuses, at protests
‘More people are standing up to say: Enough!’
Flor Crisóstomo presses fight against U.S. gov’t effort to deport her  
 
 
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