Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013. National Day of Actions in Support and in Solidarity with “We Are Jose.”
A campaign to reverse the deportation against 15-year Langley, BC resident, José Figueroa and his family and in support of other refugees impacted by Canada’s problematic terrorism laws.
https://www.facebook.com/events/150354768447191/
Actions will occur in various cities. Vancouver event details: CIC offices. 300 West Georgia Street, Library square Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. Meet at Georgia and Hamilton. An event will also take place in Langley, for more details contact wearejose@gmail.com.
For the Vancouver event, please try to arrive no later than 2:15 so that we can do a group photo. Please only RSVP if you plan to attend, so we have an idea of actual attendees.
About the campaign:
Today, We Are Jose. José Figueroa could be any one of us. He has lived happily in his Langley, BC, community, just outside Vancouver, for over 15 years with his wife, Ivannia, and three Canadian children. As they built new lives after fleeing danger in El Salvador, they worked hard and became leading members of their local Lutheran church. Again, their story is ours.
Then, out of the blue, José and his wife were told they were no longer welcome in Canada and were going to be deported.
The reason? As a university student more than 20 years ago, José was a member of a peaceful student group associated with the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation, or FMLN, the broad coalition of opposition forces fighting the ruthless Salvadorean government of the time.
Indeed, supporting the FMLN was the conscious and courageous choice of countless Salvadoreans trying to free themselves from the tyranny of a Salvadorean state that targeted with impunity priests, nuns, farmers, teachers, workers, professors, students, indeed, anyone opposed to its systematic human rights violations.
And the international community recognized Salvadoreans’ right to defend themselves against oppression. The FMLN was widely acknowledged as a legitimate and representative opposition organization and as a vital element to bringing democracy to El Salvador.
After signing UN-sponsored peace accords with the Salvadorean government twenty-one years ago on the historic day of January 16, 1992 (peace accords that Canada explicitly supported), the FMLN went on to become a leading political party and won the presidency in 2009. The Canadian government recognized that election as free and fair and even sent a representative, then Minister of State of Foreign Affairs for the Americas and now Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent, to President Mauricio Funes’s inauguration.
Still, Canadian border and immigration authorities consider José a threat to Canadian security because of his links to the current democratically elected and internationally recognized governing party of El Salvador, the FMLN. It simply doesn’t make sense. And we simply want our government to realize as much. Jose’s case is not isolated and many more refugees and immigrants are at risk of being deported due to this problematic immigration policy.
José, Ivannia, and their three Canadian children are no threats to Canada. On the contrary, they are exactly the kind of people who have built this great country. This deportation order has devastated their lives.
Their fate lies in the hands of Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, and the Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney. Supporters of the WE ARE JOSE campaign demand that Ministers Toews and Kenney immediately intervene in Mr. Figueroa’s case to reverse the deportation order against him and his family. We further demand that he ensure that the FMLN and its many supporters are no longer mischaracterized as threats by Canadian authorities.
By this, the Canadian officials will honour the Salvadoran Peace Agreement signed twenty-one years ago, on January 16, 1992, and do what’s right.
- Facebook event link
- More Info
- Tyee article by UBC prof Maxwell Cameron, about Jose’s case
- CBC report on The National, about the case
- For media enquiries please contact: wearejose@gmail.com