In Phoenix, seven protesters were arrested last night blockading an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement van in efforts to stop the deportation of 35-year-old Guadalupe García de Rayos, a mother who has been living in the United States for the last 21 years. Rayos was arrested and detained Wednesday by immigration agents during one of her routine, required check-ins with immigration officials. Advocates say her arrest signals a clear shift toward the ramping up of deportations under the Trump administration, even of people like Rayos, who had been deemed a “low-priority” for deportation under President Obama. Rayos’s lawyer said, “We’re living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants.” In protest, hundreds of people surrounded the ICE van carrying Rayos. One man locked himself to the wheels of the van, while others blockaded it with their bodies.

Protester: “So we’re here stopping the kidnapping of Lupita, so that she can be back with her family. I’m here because today it’s Lupita, tomorrow it may be my mom, and the next day it might be your mom. We need to stop the deportations, because there are 8 million people at risk. There are 8 million people who are a priority in the Trump administration, in the Trump deportation machine. And he’s not going to stop it. We have to stop it, in your city, here in Phoenix. Wherever you are, you can do this, too.”