Dream Act supporters rally in Detroit for two Downriver families affected by ICE deportations

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In front of a group of immigrant rights’ supporters and DACA recipients, Southgate’s Eric Rranxburgaj stood outside Detroit’s McNamara Federal Building in below-freezing weather Feb. 3 with a microphone in hand.

“Today, I’m here to ask Senator Peters if he can give my dad a stay of removal,” the 15-year-old said.

He’s the youngest son of Ded Rranxburgaj, a 48-year-old longtime Southgate resident who, last month, sought sanctuary with his family at Central United Methodist Church in Detroit to avoid being deported to Albania. He was scheduled to be deported on Jan. 18, but he instead chose to remain in the country to take care of his wife, Flora, who has multiple sclerosis. She had a stroke recently and is wheelchair bound.

“(My mom) can’t dress herself, she can’t feed herself correctly, she can’t bath, she can’t do normal things most people do,” Eric said to the group of activists. “If my dad got deported, I’m not sure what we’d be able to do. We can’t afford to pay for rent, bills, or take care of my mother the way only my dad can.”

The gathering of about 100 people outside the McNamara Federal Building, where Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) has an office, was the end location of a milelong march down Michigan Avenue. The rally was organized by the statewide coalition Michigan United for legislation that would protect the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients.

Michigan United and its supporters favor a clean Dream Act and oppose aggressive policies that threaten families like the Rranxburgajs and Jorge and Cindy Garcia of Lincoln Park.

Cindy Garcia attended the rally and told The Detroit News that her husband, Jorge, who was deported on Martin Luther King Jr. Day after living in the country for nearly 30 years, is living with an aunt near Mexico City.

Garcia said her husband is “sad, depressed” in Mexico and “unable to work because he left his birth certificate” in Michigan, and she and her family hope to visit him in April, according to The Detroit News.

Rranxburgaj and his wife have lived in the U.S. for almost 18 years, after they emigrated from Albania out of fear of religious persecution. He has worked in Coney Island restaurants for almost two decades to support his family until he chose to seek sanctuary at the Detroit church. He has tried to become a U.S. citizen in the past, but was denied in 2006. ICE allowed him to stay in the U.S. to take care of his wife, but his humanitarian status was revoked last year. He has no criminal record.

Eric attends Southgate Anderson High School and is a U.S. citizen. Flora, 44, is protected from deportation by her illness, and Eric’s older brother, Lorenc, 24, is a DACA recipient.

Before the family moved to the church, Eric said, they lived with constant fear of ICE coming to arrest his father.

“My life in the church has so far been calm,” he said. “Everyone in the church has been very helpful and supportive through our entire situation. We been calling his (Peters’) office for months and months and months and we’ve been asking friends, family, anyone that can help to call and support us.”

ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said Rranxburgaj is considered a “fugitive” and likely will remain that way under his current living arrangement.

“Current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activities at sensitive locations unless they have prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or in the event of exigent circumstances,” Walls said, noting that churches fall into that category.

A Peters spokesman declined to comment on Rranxburgaj's case specifically, saying they do not comment on "constituent's casework," but the senator said he supported the rally.

“Michigan Dreamers are active members of our community: they attend our schools, serve in our nation’s military and work in businesses across our state," Peters said in a written statement. "America is the only home that many of these young men and women have ever known.

"I have appreciated hearing firsthand from Michigan Dreamers about their stories, and I commend the strong civic engagement from Dreamers who are fearful about their future. I am proud to have voted in favor of the DREAM Act previously, and believe Congress must quickly take action to provide relief to our nation’s Dreamers, an effort that has bipartisan support.”

The march came days before an immigration bill that will offer a path to citizenship for the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients is set to be introduced in the U.S. Senate. The bipartisan bill is being introduced with hopes to prevent another federal government shut down after Feb. 8, when last month’s stopgap spending bill expires. The government shut down for three days last month when Democrats and Republicans couldn’t reach an agreement on the future of the DACA recipients.

The marchers, led by the Rev. W.J. Rideout III and David Sanchez of Michigan United, chanted as they walked down Michigan Avenue toward the McNamara Federal Building.

Rideout started with, “What do we want?”

“Dream Act!” the marchers replied.

“When do we want it?” Rideout asked.

“Now!”

Followed by, “If we don’t get it, shut it down!”

Kevin Casillas, Lincoln Park resident and pastor of the First Latin American Baptist Church in southwest Detroit, said he attended the rally “in solidarity with families in the Downriver community, as well as southwest Detroit, who have been affected by the un-American immigration policy being pushed” by President Donald Trump.

“We do not appreciate them being used as political footballs,” said Casillas, regarding DACA recipients and immigrants who currently have no set pathway to U.S. citizenship. “These are real lives. These are real families being torn apart by an oppressive, by an unjust political game. We have been on this fight for more than a decade for these Dreamers.”

He said Republicans and Democrats who support the Dream Act flip-flop when it’s inconvenient for them to stand up for DACA recipients.

“And we’re tired of it,” he said. “We need a clean Dream Act to pass.”

Casillas added that he’s not very optimistic in politics, but that he’ll continue to fight for this until legislators do their jobs.

“As a pastor, my hope’s in God, not in people,” he said.

Source: http://www.thenewsherald.com/news/dream-act-supporters-rally-in-detroit-for-two-downriver-families/article_696404c2-d5aa-5367-a7cb-442698766920.html