You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Undocumented Activists Who Infiltrated Florida’s Broward Detention Center Re-Arrested at Protest

HeadlineAug 07, 2012

Two undocumented activists who infiltrated the Broward Detention Center in Florida were released on Friday before being arrested again over the weekend calling for the release of other immigrants in detention. Viridiana Martinez and Marco Saavedra were effectively kicked out of the detention center after they reportedly refused to leave unless other so-called “low-priority” detainees were released. The pair were later arrested along with two other activists at a protest action Sunday calling for the release of dozens of immigrants they say are eligible for release under the Obama administration’s discretionary guidelines. At least one of the activists was later released. [UPDATE: All four have been released.] Among those detained at the Broward facility is Claudio Rojas, a father of two with no criminal record who was detained in February and has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks. Activists said more than 500 detainees inside the facility also went on hunger strike Saturday. Meanwhile, the Obama administration says forms will be available August 15 for young people under the age of 31 who meet certain criteria to apply for deferred action to avoid deportation under the administration’s new policy.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top