Tell Congressman Price: Stop the Deportation of the #NCSanctuary6!

I write to urge Congressman David Price and the rest of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation to intervene in the cases of Juana Tobar, Rosa Ortez-Cruz, Samuel Oliver, Eliseo Jimenez, Oscar Canales, and Jose Chicas and secure their return to their families and homes safe from deportation.

There are currently six North Carolinians who have taken refuge from imminent deportation in churches across our state. Their names are Juana Tobar, Rosa Ortez-Cruz, Samuel Oliver, Oscar Canales, Eliseo Jimenez and Jose Chicas. “I have taken refuge at Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh because to give up on my immigration case is to give up on my family and I cannot do that,” says Eliseo, who has two US citizen children who will grow up without a father if he is deported. The #NCSanctuary6 need your voice and support to safely return to their homes and families without the imminent threat of deportation. In the spirit of family unity, I write to urge you, Congressman David Price, to do everything in your power to immediately stop the deportation of Juana, Rosa, Samuel, Oscar, Eliseo, and Jose.   

If Juana, Rosa, Samuel, Oscar, Eliseo, and Jose are deported, their families will suffer irreparable harm. In the case of Samuel, his US citizen son’s plan to attend college will be crushed should Samuel be deported. Oscar’s US citizen daughter is also planning to attend college but if he’s deported, she will have to give up on her future to enter the workforce and help her mother sustain the household. Juana and Jose will be deported to certain death since their reasons for migrating in the first place were to seek refuge from war and violence. Likewise, Rosa is an asylum seeker whose four children need her in order to subsist. To deport them is to sentence them to their death and would be a serious violation of human rights.

According to the last memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest memo issued on February 2017, the favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion should be made whenever the removal of an individual does not serve the national interest. It is on this basis that we call on Congressman David Price to lead our North Carolina delegates in Congress, including Congressman GK Butterfield, Congressman Ted Budd, Congressman Mark Walker, and Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, to intervene in the cases of the #NCSanctuary6 to stop their deportation and allow their return home immediately.