Immigrant Rights Advocates Demand Release of Activist from ICE Detention Ahead of Bond Hearing

For Immediate Release: 
Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Washington, DC — Detention Watch Network and La ColectiVA demand the release of Alejandra Pablos, immigrant rights and reproductive rights activist, who has spent over a month in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and is scheduled to appear in front of an immigration judge for a bond hearing on Thursday in Arizona.

Pablos was detained by ICE after a scheduled check-in with ICE’s Tucson office. Pablos was taken to the Eloy Detention Center, one of the deadliest detention centers in the country, as a clear form of retaliation by ICE after participating in a peaceful immigrant rights demonstration in Virginia earlier this year.

Irma Corado, of La ColectiVA, said, “Alejandra has been an integral part of our organizing efforts to strengthen the Latinx community of Northern Virginia to fight back against the relentless attacks by the racist Trump administration. Her influence and impact can be seen nationwide. We stand with Alejandra, as a friend, as a fearless leader and as a person who is locked up in an unjust and inhumane detention center like thousands of others who need to be released and reunited with their families and communities.”

Danny Cendejas, Organizing Director of Detention Watch Network said, “Alejandra is yet another prominent activist to be targeted by ICE, an agency that has an egregious track record of abuse that is long-standing, well documented and overwhelming. The increased targeting of immigrant rights activists to silence political opposition to ICE’s cruel and unjust practices is a clear example of the degradation of democratic values under the Trump administration. We stand with Alejandra and will fight for her release from the deadly and abusive immigration detention system.”

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La ColectiVA, an inclusive collaborative led by Latinx people in Northern Virginia who are committed to upholding social justice and equity. www.lacolectiva.org

Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to expose and challenge the injustices of the United States’ immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes the rights and dignity of all persons. Founded in 1997 by immigrant rights groups, DWN brings together advocates to unify strategy and build partnerships on a local and national level to end immigration detention. Visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org