WASHINGTON – A group of about 30 human rights protesters used six words on Thursday to demand more legal rights for thousands of children arriving at the border:
“Obama,Obama: Don’t send the kids back.”
The protest was held on a sidewalk in front of the White House and was organized by human rights group Amnesty International. Protesters,ranging from small children to adults,demanded that President Barack Obama stop deporting children back to Central America.
“We cannot send the children back. They are coming from crisis. They need help,” Gerry Rivadeneira,20,a student at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley,Mass.,said.
Click on photo to enlarge or download: Gerry Rivadeneira,far left,20,a student at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley,Mass.,leads a protest in from of the White House Thursday. She said that the thousands of unaccompanied children arriving at the border deserve more legal rights. SHFWire photo by Anna GilesEarlier this month Obama requested $3.7 billion in aid to help the government cope with thousands of children arriving at the border – most of whom are from El Salvador,Guatemala and Honduras. Violence and lack of job opportunities in these countries are the main reasons children are fleeing,according to human rights advocates.
Republican lawmakers blame the administration’s immigration policies.
The administration has been looking for ways to make the deportation process more efficient. Rivadeneira,who led nearly all of the chants at the protest,said this is wrong.
“President Obama can protect these children. We don’t want him to send them back,” she said.
Margaret Huang,deputy executive director of Amnesty International,said the children deserve more legal rights and that the process of apprehending them should be more humane.
Many of the recent influx of women and children have been turning themselves into border agents as soon as they arrive on U.S. soil,hoping they can stay with relatives.
“I don’t think we should only be looking at this as a national security crisis. I think we have to look at this as a humanitarian crisis and possibly as a refugee crisis,” Huang said.
Reach reporter Anna Giles at anna.giles@scripps.com or 202-326-9861. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire.
About Anna Giles- Summer 2014
Originally from the U.S. – Mexico border region in southern New Mexico,Anna Giles is a rising senior at Syracuse University in Syracuse,N.Y.,where she studies broadcast journalism and international relations. Anna is passionate about telling good stories and uncovering new information.
Just before coming to Washington,Anna spent a month in the small coastal town of Great Yarmouth,England,where she documented the socioeconomic effects of a decline in tourism revenue through video,photos and written articles as part of a university honors project.
Anna has interned with and worked for various news outlets throughout her college career – both local stations and national news services. This spring,she completed a production internship with CNY Central News in Syracuse,where she helped producers compile the daily rundown and wrote stories for the hour-long 5 p.m. newscast. Anna has worked with stations all the way from El Paso,Texas (KVIA-TV),to Charleston,Ill. (WEIU-TV),where her work centered on researching and pitching story ideas,interviewing newsmakers and writing and editing stories for air and for the web.
Anna reports from D.C. this summer with some previous experience – she was a production intern with ABC news in spring 2013,where she had the opportunity to attend and help report on congressional hearings,events hosted at the White House,briefings at the State Department and major events such as the Boston Marathon bombings.
Anna is also heavily involved with media at her university – reporting,anchoring,producing and writing for her campus station Citrus TV News,reporting for her campus newspaper The Daily Orange and writing local political stories for the online news service Democracywise. She founded,anchored and is the executive producer for the campus political talk show “Talking Points.”
Anna’s passion is political reporting,but she enjoys the opportunity to cover any story and learn about different lifestyles. Outside of journalism,Anna studies security and diplomacy throughout the Middle East as part of her major in international events. She is a member of the Kappa Tau Alpha national honor society for journalism as well as Sigma Iota Rho – the national international relations honor society.
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