More than 200 protest deportations at Gary airport under eye of armed SWAT officers – Chicago Tribune

For Richard Aguirre, protesting deportations of people who entered the country without authorization from the Gary/Chicago International Airport was a natural extension of his work that stopped a proposed detention center in Elkhart County last month.

Activists in Gary have reached out, providing support and assistance for the effort, Aguirre said. He wanted to return the favor.

“We feel connected to them because they were with us when we started our fight, so we want to be here as they continue their fight against these thefts,” said Aguirre, co-coordinator of the Elkhart County Immigration Center Coalition.

Shouting in particular “love, not hate, makes America great,” more than 200 demonstrators went Friday to the Gary Jet Center where a bus full of people who entered the country illegally was to be put on a plane bound for Texas, then deported.

Aguirre said he felt using the airport for this purpose was a wasted opportunity for Gary.

“I understand that desperate times require taking advantage of any economic opportunity,” Aguirre said. “It’s sad to me that it’s at an airport that could be used for better purposes.”

Gary police, SWAT officers and Indiana State Police were watching nearby. As in previous protests, activists were enclosed by barriers, including barricades and a fence separating the airport entrance road from the parking lot on the other side.

The direct view of the white transport buses was obscured from the protesters, essentially leaving room for what appeared to be the tail of a chartered plane.

“I want to do everything we can to dismantle this deportation machine that the government is building,” Aguirre said. “I see this as throwing sand in the gears, making it more difficult and more expensive for the government.”

Aguirre said his message to federal immigration officials was simple.

“Are you really planning to spend your life creating misery for people? he said. “Is this what you imagined you would do with your life? Because with a handful of criminals you expel, you can feel good about it.”

Is this what your (parents, grandparents and ancestors) would have wanted,” he said. “I don’t think they would have done it, I think they would be ashamed.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement air operations began using the airport for detainee deportation flights in June 2013, and 12,509 people have been evacuated by air as of June 28, 2017. Detained immigrants are transported by bus to Gary from a detention center about 40 miles away in Broadview, Illinois.

They are then flown to Brownsville, Texas, near the Mexican border, to be deported. Although President Donald Trump has taken a hard line on immigration, more than 2 million people have been deported during President Barack Obama’s tenure.

Ruth Needleman of Northwest Indiana Resistance, a co-organizer with LE Whitman, said it was upsetting to see people board the plane. The group is a coalition of regional action groups organized after the Trump administration’s travel ban was enacted in January 2017.

“Stop deportations from our airport,” she said. “We want jobs, not evictions.”

Chicago native Aracely Chavez, 33, now of Hammond, said she came to the protests for the second time in part to be a voice for two people she knew were protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

They were afraid of being arrested at the airport, she said.

The uncertainty facing the program “affects them,” she said. “A lot of them have grown up here their whole lives since they were kids.

“They don’t know their family there. They don’t know how to survive at home,” Chavez said. “They don’t have the resources, so (if they) get evicted, they have nowhere to live, nowhere to work. They have to start at the bottom.”

The protest attracted activists from Black Lives Matter Gary, Fight for $15, Calumet Strategy Group, Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, Social Action Temple Israel, among others. Other protesters arrived by bus from Chicago.

It also attracted a significant union presence, including members of the United Steel Workers from as far away as Houston.

Ephrin Jenkins of Gary, a U.S. Steel worker and founder of Black Labor Week, said it was important to bring union members from across the country to town for his weeklong event to witness the eviction protests.

“It’s probably happening in their states too,” he said.

The Rev. Dena Holland-Neal of Trinity United Church of Christ, noting the presence of heavily armed SWAT officers, called on Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson to take a stronger stance and use her influence on the airport board to oppose its use as a staging ground for deportations.

“It’s not welcoming in any way,” Holland-Neal said.

Gary/Chicago International Airport Spokesperson David Goldenberg Because it receives federal funding like other airports, they cannot deny federal flights from operating at the airport.

“We are in a position where we are prohibited from preventing anyone from using the airport,” he said. “We play no role in any of this.”

mcolias@post-trib.com

Twitter @meredithcolias