Occupy Oakland Protester Pancho Ramos Stierle Faces Deportation After Arrest
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www.democracynow.org – The arrest of a high-profile undocumented protester has brought immigration issues to the forefront of the movement. In California on Monday, Francisco "Pancho" Ramos Stierle was seized while meditating at the Oscar Grant Plaza during an early morning raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment. Rather than being released on bail, "Pancho" was turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody under the "Secure Communities" program which shares arrest information from local jails with federal immigration agents. Thousands of his supporters launched a campaign for his release, which included a Change.org petition that attracted 6600 signatures in just 24 hours. Thursday morning, Pancho was finally released from ICE custody. "Pancho" joins Democracy Now! from Berkeley, California. "Every time the people ask me, 'where you from?' I say, 'Well I'm from planet earth.' And 'Where's your citizenship?' 'Well, I'm a citizen of the world.' So that created a little bit more time, but… they have the fingerprints," he says. "So at the end of the day, this is what's happening instead of using these resources for building more clinics, for fixing those bridges, for getting more schools, for having meaningful livelihood. We're using those resources, some people in the 1 percent are using those resources to harass peaceful people, to harass nonviolent people, to harass people that are looking for creating communities in harmony." For the complete interview <b>…</b>
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| Time: 06:57 |
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