Rally at MTS meeting
SAN DIEGO -
Several students and teachers rallied Thursday morning to end immigration raids on the San Diego Trolley.
The group chanted and held signs at the Metropolitan Transit System offices in the East Village. They want MTS to stop cooperating with Border Patrol and other immigration authorities who do immigration checks on Trolley lines.
The rally comes three weeks after three local high school students were deported to Mexico. The students were on their way to school when Border Patrol officers questioned their immigration status at the Old Town Trolley Station.
"They are afraid to go to school. They are afraid they will be deported or questioned on their way to it," said Ana Maria Benetez, mother of one of the three students, at the MTS board meeting. "We feel frustration and pain. My daughter is not here with us, and that has changed our reality dramatically."
Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation System said they sympathize and do not want to see children detained for using their system.
"We should clarify that MTS really had no role in this," said Robb Shupp, MTS Marketing Director. "But legally they say there is nothing they can do."
The MTS Board said they will express their concerns to law enforcement agencies.
In the meantime, Benetez says she is not giving up her fight to bring her daughter back to San Diego and to prevent this from happening to other families.
The group chanted and held signs at the Metropolitan Transit System offices in the East Village. They want MTS to stop cooperating with Border Patrol and other immigration authorities who do immigration checks on Trolley lines.
The rally comes three weeks after three local high school students were deported to Mexico. The students were on their way to school when Border Patrol officers questioned their immigration status at the Old Town Trolley Station.
"They are afraid to go to school. They are afraid they will be deported or questioned on their way to it," said Ana Maria Benetez, mother of one of the three students, at the MTS board meeting. "We feel frustration and pain. My daughter is not here with us, and that has changed our reality dramatically."
Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation System said they sympathize and do not want to see children detained for using their system.
"We should clarify that MTS really had no role in this," said Robb Shupp, MTS Marketing Director. "But legally they say there is nothing they can do."
The MTS Board said they will express their concerns to law enforcement agencies.
In the meantime, Benetez says she is not giving up her fight to bring her daughter back to San Diego and to prevent this from happening to other families.
