By Emma DeLuca and Cameron Harrison
Photos: People’s World\YouTube Screenshot
DETROIT—Teachers, students, and community activists in this city flooded the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board meeting on Tuesday to demand its members fight for the release of Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, a junior at Western International High School, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month and is scheduled to be deported today.
The board meeting dragged on for several hours as dozens of Detroiters made public comments calling for the student to be returned to Detroit and for elected leaders to do more in the face of ICE raids and Trump’s militarized power plays. After hours of intense public comments, the board issued a statement condemning Bogoya-Duarte’s detention by federal immigration officials.
While these developments were happening here, mass peaceful protests continued against the ICE raids in Los Angeles and in other cities around the country. On Tuesday, demonstrators in L.A., in the time-honored traditions of peaceful civil disobedience, voluntarily submitted to arrest to make the point that the Trump administration’s raids and deployment of National Guard troops and Marines were both illegal and immoral. The city’s mayor, Karen Bass, said it was her job to protect everyone in the city, regardless of when, how, or from where they came to the U.S.
Here in Detroit, Bogoya-Duarte was detained by immigration authorities on May 20 while driving with classmates to a school field trip. The 18-year-old immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia nearly three years ago. His request for asylum was denied last year, and he was planning to return to Colombia with his mother shortly after his upcoming high school graduation….READ MORE…
