Marching with a Movement

Marching with a Movement:  #2Million2Many

The day began with a group of Prescott College students adding bodies to an already energetic group,  for the march, The Trail to End Deportation, organized by Puente.  This is a three-day on-going march from April 2-5, that began from ICE Headquarters (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Phoenix, and goes on to Eloy where the march will be joined by many more at Eloy Detention Center. It is a 60-mile walk that publicizes the private suffering of families that have been separated by the ICE machine.  

We are marching for the end of deportations so that families can live without fear. So that children do not have to worry when they go to school that day that their mother, father, aunt, uncle, sister, brother will not be home when they come home. I am marching because I don't believe in borders, and because I believe that crossing the border doesn't equate being criminalized. I march with those who have been affected by the inhumane treatment of their loved ones by the people who work in the detention centers because I am an ally in fighting for human rights and justice. We are marching as an intergenerational group- some organizing since Vietnam, others children, and the rest in-between. We march to ask Obama to STOP DEPORTATIONS, because he has that power to stop separating families, yet he chooses not to. 

"While he [Obama] asks for unity, he continues to break our families apart; imprisoning relatives for months or years locked up at distances that make visits almost impossible." *

Those who marched in solidarity came from groups such as Unitarain Universalist Congregation of Phoenix, Progressive Democrats of America and other citizens. Prescott College students came from an undergraduate class, "History of Conflict in the Southwest" taught by Laura Campagna, and the Master's in Social Justice and Human Rights cohort class taught by Zoe Hammer. 

"We go on foot because this walk is a pilgrimage, a spiritual act, a prayer for our families. We make sacrifices to draw attention to our suffering, in a way that is rooted in our community’s traditions." 

We won't stop, until all deportations end, and those held in cages will be returned to their families. 

Trail to End Deportations Video

*Quotes taken from Puente Human Rights Movement/Facebook event page

~Jen Iadevaia