October 11 Rally

Oswego, NY - The Detainment Task Force, a Syracuse based Immigrant Justice group working to publicize the atrocious acts of Border Patrol, and groups from Central and Upstate NY gathered in Oswego, NY, to protest Border Patrol practices throughout the region and across the nation. After gathering outside of the Safe Haven memorial, which commemorates the welcoming and support for many Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1940's, over 60 protesters chanted with signs in hand as they walked the short distance to the Oswego Border Patrol Office, a monument to the harassment and oppression of those who come to work in the area as a result of global economic pressures.

The protest comes less than 2 weeks after 40 agents raided a community in Sodus, outside of Rochester, in the early morning hours of September 28 as part of a nation-wide immigration "sweep." The Latino community in Sodus has sustained an increasing level of fear tactics, harassment, and too many arrests, by Border Patrol and Federal ICE agents in recent months. Many reports have come through of Border Patrol breaking into people's homes, exploiting hospitality of the community, shining flash lights through bedroom windows, bearing weapons, raiding communities in plain clothes and much more. Border Patrol activity has also been widely noted at bus and train stations between Syracuse and Rochester, NY, on Central New York highways, at markets, laundromats and many other public spaces in communities with significant Latino and farmworker communities.