January 28th, 2008
Two years ago I was arrested in a raid that destroyed the lives of hundreds of IFCO workers and their families. The raid was part of the campaign of “attrition” through “enforcement only” that is the current wrong-headed policy of this government.
I have exhausted all my legal appeals and I have been ordered out of the country today. I am expected to be one of the flashing yellow warning lights that tells the 12 million undocumented to leave their families and “self-deport.”
I am not leaving. I have asked and been granted sanctuary in my church. I am not defying the laws of this country and I am not hiding. I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to Make America See what they are doing. I hope that adding my grain of sand to the struggle will help to get the U.S. Congress to act to fix a broken law and an inhuman system of undocumented labor.