Vol. 81/No. 23 June 12, 2017
Atlanta: ‘We won’t be silent’ fighting deportations
Andino, 24, came with fellow members of the Lambda Theta Phi Latino fraternity at the University of Georgia in Athens. Members of several chapters of the Lambda Theta Alpha Latina sorority, to which Colotl belongs, were also on hand for the protest.
The action was called by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Georgia NAACP, Black Lives Matter Greater Atlanta, Georgia Equality and other groups.
Colotl, 28, moved to the United States from Mexico when she was 10-years-old. Colotl first gained national attention in 2010 when she was arrested on the Kennesaw State University campus near Atlanta and charged with impeding traffic and driving without a license. She was held at a federal immigration detention center in Alabama for more than a month. Protests initiated by her sorority drew national attention and won her release. Colotl graduated and has been working since.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement revoked her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status May 3 and has threatened to deport her. Established by executive order by President Barack Obama in 2012, DACA put a moratorium on deportations for many immigrant youth and allowed them to work.
ICE officials say Colotl admitted to giving an incorrect address to a police officer during the 2010 traffic stop. Colotl said she had given them her previous address and had moved while the case was in process. Nonetheless “her guilty plea is considered a felony conviction for immigration purposes,” ICE spokesman Bryan Cox told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This is nothing new. The government has canceled DACA status for about 1,500 youth since the start of the program because of alleged “criminality or gang affiliation concerns.”
Colotl is appealing her deportation order in federal court.
In the first three months since President Donald Trump took office, ICE has stepped up the pace of arrests of undocumented immigrants, reversing a trend of a decrease over the final two years President Obama was in office.
Janice Lynn contributed to this article.
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