The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and immigration advocates will be holding a vigil at the Denver Contract Detention Facility (3130 North Oakland Street) in Aurora, Colo at 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2013.
Racial justice and civil rights organizer, Tania Valenzuela of the Colorado Progressive Coalition stated:
“One goal is to raise awareness of what goes on in there, and the ultimate goal is to close the for-profit detention center, its only purpose is to separate families. Deportations are at their highest rates ever, and the tearing of families is rampant. We hear of stories every single day, and it almost always starts with what I could say is racial profiling where police officers are stopping people for the minor things and because we have currently taken away the opportunity for our undocumented folk to get driver's licenses they end up in jail with ICE holds and those most likely end up in deportations. Its a very messed up system and its all based on profit.”
The Obama administration deported a record number of 1.5 million people during President Obama’s first term. At a immigrant rights debate in Denver in 2012, Jordan Garcia of the AFSC stated, ““Migration is a human right—people have migrated for centuries ...” Regarding tax costs of detention centers the AFSC wrote, “Immigrant detention costs $5.4 million in taxpayer money per day. While detention costs $164 per day per person, several studies have shown that alternatives to detention are just as effective at a cost of anywhere from $4 to $12 per day.” The monthly vigils outside of the Denver Contract Detention Facility are entering their third year of protest.
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