In Her Words: 10 Year Old Katherine Says that Laws Like 287(g) and Arizona's SB1070 Tear Families Apart

Last Friday, we heard from Sylvia, a 23-year-old immigrant woman residing in Arizona, who wouldn't seek out the assistance of police if she or someone she knew was under threat.  Arizona's SB 1070, 287(g) and other laws and policies that innapropriately implicate state and local police in federal immigration work reduce community trust in law enforcement, threaten public safety and separate families. The second in our series of testimonies from women and children speaking out against such laws and policies comes from 10 year old Katherine Figueroa. Her parents aren't the "criminal aliens" the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency purports to be targetting. They simply came to America "for a better life for the[ir] children." Laws like Arizona's SB 1070 and 287(g) sweep hard working parents like Katherine's into jails and prisons and away from their children--for traffic offenses or other minor violations which function as pretexts for checking immigration status."Children," Katherine says,"don't know what to do without their parents."

Over the course of the next few days, we'll continue to share with you the voices of real women and children abused and dismissed by state and local police who have attempted to function as immigration agents and who have shirked their primary responsibility of serving and protecting their communities. These testimonies were offered before members of Congress who convened an ad hoc hearing on June 10th on the specific impact of SB 1070 and related laws on women and children. This hearing was coordinated by several rights' groups including the Puente Movement, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Family Values at Work Consortium and the AFL-CIO.

In Katherine's words:

My name is Katherine Figueroa and I am 10 years old living in Phoenix, Arizona.  Last year both my parents were jailed for 3 long months after Sheriff Arpaio’s deputies arrested them.  I sacrificed because I did not want my parents to be in jail a long time. 

It was very hard for me every time when I went to school.  I kept thinking that maybe I would see my parents when I got back home.  I would also have bad dreams where the deputies would take my aunt, her family and me to jail.  I’m still afraid of the deputies.  We went to the hospital to visit a relative and I saw deputies and I did not want to go in. 

Last year I marched in the children’s march to show that not only parents are fighting back but that kids are doing the same thing to change the laws that are separating us from our parents.

Please help us.  Children don’t know what to do without their parents.  Our parents come here for a better life for the children. 

I feel bad about the new law, SB 1070, because I can’t be with my family in the car because the police or deputies will take my family away to jail. 

Please tell President Obama to stop SB 1070 and 287(g) which are racist laws that give the police to stop everyone that is brown and for Arpaio to ask questions like immigration agents. 

Please tell President Obama to stop putting parents in jail, all they want is a better life for their kids. 

-Katherine Figueroa