Tampa, FL – Organizations around the Tampa Bay joined together here for a press conference, April 24, in front of the Ybor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, holding two banners, one that read “May Day” and another saying “Stop the deportations.”

Daisy Garcia of the Tampa community group Raíces en Tampa said, “Immigrants risk everything in order to cross the border into the U.S. and to provide a better future for their families. We demand that President Obama end the record-high deportations and that the hold of DAPA be lifted!”

Jessica Schwartz of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) said, “As a group that fights against political repression, we stand with the undocumented and against deportation as a tool used against immigrants.”

Students from the University of South Florida are also joining Tampa’s May Day. Gage LaCharite of Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) said, “We demand that the trend the Florida state legislature started last year – with the passing of HB 851, which granted in-state tuition to the undocumented in Florida – expand to allowing financial aid to these same students! May Day SDS will join in force to demand, ‘Not one more deportation.’”

The press conference ended with Marisol Márquez of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) stating, “Border militarization and deportations will continue if we keep having a system like the one that currently rules the U.S. On May Day we will take to the streets just like our brothers and sisters who took to the streets in 2006. We will demand legalization for all of the undocumented who need and demand liberation, not deportation!”

May Day in Tampa will occur on May 1, at 6:00 p.m. in front of the ICE office located at 1624 E 7th Avenue in Tampa. To view the event online go here: https://www.facebook.com/events/821962151210671/

#TampaFL #Labor #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #May1 #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #RaicesEnTampa #Not1More