GOSHEN – For years, Orange County has had a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house illegal immigrants with criminal records temporarily at the county jail pending their deportation.
On Sunday, several dozen people rallied at the Green in Goshen calling for an end to the practice.
Speakers claimed many of those detainees are transferred out with relatives not knowing where their loved ones are.
One speaker, Marie Martinez of Newburgh, said the experience in the jail can cause emotional problems for the detainee and family members.
“Detention centers are not just holding facilities, they are the beginning of lifelong trauma and grief,” she said. “We all carry difference stories and are shaped by different struggles backgrounds, yet united by a shared purpose. It is that very calling that brought us here today, a mission rooted in justice, driven by truth and sustained by a hope that cannot be extinguished.”
Man of the participants at the protest carried makeshift signs and banner calling for ICE to get out of the county jail, while others called for ICE to be abolished.
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