Community rallies outside ICE detention facility in Tacoma, WA
TACOMA, Wash. - On Father's Day, community members rallied in front of ICE's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, to remember the fathers that are being detained there.
Supporters of immigrants and immigrant rights gathered Sunday outside the Northwest Detention Center to honor fathers detained there.
Maru Mora, a volunteer with La Resistencia. led the rally Sunday.
"This is the 11th annual Father’s Day that we do here at the Northwest Detention Center. We started back in 2014. La Resistencia has been there every day since," said Mora.
The crowd called for the release of the men who were locked up in the facility, including "Kuya Max. Organizers say on June 14, the Filipino father and green card holder was "unjustly and incorrectly profiled" and sent to a higher level of security and isolation.
"We are definitely here today honoring Kuya Max and his fight, but we are here for every migrant who is willing to fight and who understands this is unjust. No one deserves to be in a detention center on Father's Day or any day," said Geneseo, with Geneseo, IMA & Tanggol Migrante.
At around just 10 years old, Geneseo's own father was taken into detention.
"Can you imagine what it’s like for a child, what it’s like to say goodbye to their dad, unaware when they would see them again?," asked Geneseo.
Geneseo says the men entered the family's home late at night and asked if the family had any words to say to him before taking him away.
"I got on my knees and I sobbed and I begged, and then they dragged my dad out of my sight, out of the reach of my family," said Geneseo, who said he finally achieved status around 11 years later.
"I spent Father's Day and birthdays multiple Christmases and stuff without him."
The protest comes on the heels of others this week in Seattle and LA. Meantime, Trump in a social media post, called on ICE officials "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in history" and expand efforts in America's largest cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York."
"I know that it’s scary, and I know that sometimes it feels like you are going up against a monster, and you can’t beat it. But, as someone who has been through that experience, I know the only thing that has made me feel better is getting out here with other families," said Geneseo.
The Source: Information in this story came from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle's Jennifer Dowling.
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