Rally to Protect Central American Children

Rally to Protect Central American Children
Friday, July 25, 3:00 pm | White House (16^th and Pennsylvania Ave, NW)

On Friday afternoon, the Presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will be meeting with President Obama and Vice-President Biden to discuss the dire situation facing refugee children.

Let’s join together to call on President Obama to uphold and defend the legal rights of children, ensure that families can be reunited and protected here in the U.S., and to take responsibility for U.S. economic and military policies in Mexico and Central America that helped create this crisis in the first place.

There are many powerful political forces who are exploiting a crisis to increase deportations, further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and increase U.S. funding for repressive police and military forces under the banner of the so-called “War on Drugs.”

As our friends at Presente.org report, “The House and Senate are ramming through a bill, deceptively named the ‘HUMANE Act’, that would speed up the deportations of refugee children back to Central America. If it passes, President Obama is likely to sign it — despite a pledge not to send kids back home to their deaths.” (Take action here today!)

This is a critical opportunity to show the peoples of Central America that we are taking a stand for the rights of all families to live together in peace and with dignity and calling on our own government to end its policies that support repression, displacement and exploitation in their countries, from corporate-rights agreements like CAFTA to continued aid and training for repressive police and military forces.

Please join the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), Sisters of Mercy, and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns on Friday, July 25^th at 3 pm at the White House.

Whether or not you can join us on Friday, please sign the petition today against the so-called HUMANE Act, which would roll-back the rights of unaccompanied minors to have a hearing with an immigration judge and fast-track the deportation of thousands of children.

Let us know if you can make it! Please contact Alexis at CISPES (202) 521-2510 ext. 205 (alexis@cispes.org) or Kathryn Johnson at GHRC at (202) 529-6599 (kjohnson@ghrc-usa.org) with any questions or if you can help volunteer with turnout.