PHOENIX, AZ – At midnight on May 31, Emilio Hernandez heard a knock on the front door. With the rest of his family sound asleep, he walked to the door and opened it. He couldn’t believe what he saw. There standing in the doorway was his wife, Bertha Hernandez.

Bertha Hernandez was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held in Eloy Detention Center since November 2012. A large protest took place in Phoenix on May 29 demanding that ICE release her.

“When my dad answered the door, he started freaking out,” said Jennifer Hernandez, Bertha’s 16-year-old daughter. “I woke up because I thought something bad had happened, but when I ran over to the door, it was my Mom! I ran and hugged her, and I kept saying, ‘Is this real? Is this real?’”

ICE took Hernandez, a mother of five children, into custody in November 2012 at the Arizona-California state border for being undocumented, despite her having no criminal record during her 16-year residency in the U.S.. “The day I saw her get arrested, I didn’t cry,” said Jennifer Hernandez. “I was just in shock.”

Hernandez emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador in 1997, seeking political asylum. The state of Arizona has no political asylum case manager, leaving Hernandez unable to obtain necessary documentation. All five of her children, including Jennifer, are U.S. citizens.

In an exclusive interview with Fight Back! News, Jennifer Hernandez described her family’s struggle in the nearly seven months in which her mother was detained. “It was hard not seeing her in the morning or at night. It’s been almost seven months, and it just so hard. You want to just say ‘I love you,’ and you can’t.” She talked of times when her five-year-old sister, who understood what happened to Bertha, wanted to be with her mom. “I would just say ‘I know’ and we would cry.”

The Hernandez family tried consulting lawyers about Bertha’s case, but they received very little help. “No lawyers wanted to take her case,” said Jennifer. “They said it was almost impossible to get her out. And that is devastating to hear.”

Organizers from Puente, a grassroots immigrant rights organization, met Jennifer Hernandez at Carl Hayden High School. Bertha Hernandez’s case struck a chord with Chicanos, Central Americans and Mexicans in the Phoenix area. Phoenix is located in Maricopa County, where the infamously racist sheriff Joe Arpaio abuses immigrants.

On May 29, organizers with Puente joined up with the Hernandez family to hold a massive march on the ICE office in Phoenix. More than 120 people marched in the protest, demanding Bertha’s release and an end to the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The rally drew widespread community support from students, teachers, parents, and activists in the Phoenix area. Phoenix Union High School District Superintendent Kent P. Scribner and Carl Hayden High School approved of the protest organized by their students and the children of Bertha Hernandez.

“So many people wanted to help my mom,” said Jennifer about the rally. “It was crazy because I didn’t think that this many people would care about my mother and her case. People gave her so much importance, even people who didn’t even know her. We did the march, and when I saw how many people united, it was a lot.”

Bertha Hernandez saw the protest on a TV inside Eloy when a local television statement ran a segment on it in the news. In an interview with Fight Back!, Hernandez described her reaction to the protest, saying, “I was crying because I was worried for my children, for Jennifer. But everyone detained in Eloy said to me, ‘don’t cry.’ Everybody believed in me reuniting with my family and winning this victory.”

Immediately after the protest, ICE agents called Bertha Hernandez into their office to review her file. Facing enormous community pressure, they released her from Eloy less than a day after the rally.

“The ICE agents didn’t say much,” said Bertha. “They only said, ‘You’re going home now.’ I was crying and crying, saying ‘I don’t believe it.’” She continued, “But when they said, ‘You are going home now to the bus station in Phoenix,’ I said, ‘Okay, I believe it now.’”

ICE released Bertha Hernandez late at night on May 30, dropping her off at the bus station in downtown Phoenix. ICE did not contact the Hernandez’s family. Hernandez figured out how to return home, knocked on the door and surprised her anxious family, who had marched just two days earlier demanding her release.

Speaking to the release of Hernandez, Beto Soto, organizer with Puente and a leader of the march, said, “The almost-instant response by ICE towards the case of Bertha lays out the power of students organizing for family reunification in America. It shows ICE has no plan to fix the immigration system. What we need is legalization for all.”

When asked how she feels about the victory, Bertha Hernandez said, “I am excited, very happy. I don’t believe it because everything feels very, very different.”

This people’s victory in Phoenix comes at the end of a national week of action by immigrant rights groups around the U.S., which demands “Legalization for all.” The countrywide events targeted ICE offices, detention centers, legislators involved in drafting Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), and other politicians.

Drawing lessons from this victory, Soto said, “The biggest lessons in American history have been taught by working and oppressed people, and now the students in Maricopa County will be leading a struggle for family reunification and the inalienable, self-evident right to go to school without fear. And in this case, ICE learned a powerful lesson from the students.”

#PhoenixArizona #PhoenixAZ #ICE #Arizona #BerthaHernandez

Phoenix, AZ – Thunderous voices of more than 120 people echoed through Phoenix on May 29 as protesters marched to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, demanding the release of Bertha Hernandez and an end to deportations of undocumented immigrants. Students, counselors and teachers from Carl Hayden High School joined immigrant rights activists in the streets to protest the detention of Hernandez and other immigrants.

ICE agents stopped Hernandez, a mother of five, at the Arizona-California border in November 2012. Though Hernandez lived in the U.S. for more than 16 years – raising five children, all whom are U.S. citizens – ICE took her into custody and placed her in Eloy Detention Center. The for-profit Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) runs Eloy. Hernandez has no criminal record. She immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador seeking political asylum. She currently faces deportation, which will effectively break up her long-established family.

Organizer Beto Soto of Puente, a grassroots organization of immigrant rights activists, said in an interview about the case, “Jennifer’s mother has been held in Eloy Detention Center since November. Given that she applied for asylum in the U.S., and given Arizona does not have an asylum case manager, her case has yet to be heard from an expert.” Soto called this “an injustice, in no uncertain terms.”

Puente linked up with the Hernandez family to organize the rally, demanding Hernandez’s release from Eloy Detention Center and an end to the deportations. Hernandez’s case drew widespread community support from Chicanos, Central Americans and Mexicans in Maricopa County. Importantly for students and parents, Phoenix Union High School District Superintendent Kent P. Scribner and Carl Hayden High School approved of the protest organized by their students and the children of Bertha Hernandez.

The rally began mid-morning in Steele Indian School Park, where protesters gathered to hear about Hernandez’s case. Speakers outlined the day’s plan and then protesters marched off to the ICE office in Phoenix to voice their demands directly to the officials responsible for Hernandez’s detention. Chanting “No more deportations!”, protesters congregated outside the building to hear testimony and speeches from Hernandez’s family and others who face racist repression.

In front of the crowd, Jennifer Hernandez, Bertha’s daughter and a student at Carl Hayden High School, demanded, “Release my mom! She did not commit any crime.” She gave a powerful speech about the impact of her mother’s detention and the stress caused to the family by not knowing if she will be deported. Hernandez also spoke about the breakup of hundreds of thousands of families, “We need to stop deportation in general.”

ICE officials refused to meet with the protesters regarding Hernandez’s case.

Since the 2010 passage of Arizona’s SB 1070, which allows law enforcement to practice blatant racial profiling, Arizona remains a major battleground in the struggle for immigrant rights. The notorious Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, facing a recall campaign, was found guilty of racial profiling by a U.S. Federal District Judge on May 24. Arpaio’s abusive and racist reputation as the most anti-immigrant sheriff in the U.S. leads to the detention and deportation of people like Hernandez. However, there is a strong and growing fightback movement in Arizona and nationally, aiming to defeat Arpaio, ICE and deportations.

“The systematic attacks on families in Maricopa County are being met with the organizing efforts of students, teachers and parents,” said Soto. “Deportations affect the academic lives of students, our Chicano and Latino communities and the future of Arizona.”

All over the U.S. this week, immigrant rights activists raised the demand, “Stop the deportations! Legalization for all!” by taking direct action. “Cases like Hernandez’s highlight the need for a truly comprehensive immigration reform that provides legalization for all undocumented people,” said Soto.

Puente and other immigrant rights groups plan for further action to stop the deportation of Bertha Hernandez. On June 14, Puente and Hernandez’s family will attend Sheriff Arpaio’s hearing on the federal court ruling and demand his immediate resignation.

#PhoenixAZ #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcementICE #Arizona #immigrationRights #legalizationForAll #BerthaHernandez #Puente