Dozens march to protest ICE agents targeting students

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dozens gathered in protest Saturday at Scaleybark station in south Charlotte, ahead of a near 3-mile march to the government center in Uptown.

Protesters believe United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has unfairly targeted area undocumented immigrants, including CMS student Yefri Sorto, who’s now in line to be deported.

"It just worries me that Charlotte would be part of the cities where this is happening," said Jose Hernandez-Paris, Executive Director with the Latin American Coalition (LAC).

"When you see an 18 or 19 year old, being a parent, for me this is a child who is now in a criminal jail."

Sorto is one of dozens of students who came to the U.S. within the last two years without documentation.  Protesters believe ICE targeted Sorto when he was no longer a minor, and say agents arrested him at a bus stop.

In a statement last month, an ICE spokesman said a judge ordered Sorto’s deportation, adding that officers picked him up outside his home and not at his school bus stop.

The spokesman said ICE tries to avoid actions at sensitive areas, including schools and churches, and does not pick up students at bus stops.

"We're very certain that if he was not at the bus stop, he was on his way to school," Hernandez-Paris said.

"That's something I think we can all agree on."

Among the protesters were Sorto's family and close friends.  Cousin Joel Velasquez says he speaks with Sorto almost daily, from the detention facility in Georgia where he's being held.

"He tells me that he suffers," said Velasquez.

"It hurts me because we are equal here.  We can be different races, cultures, but we're all the same from the inside."

The LAC Executive Director said the group is working with Congress members and area attorneys to petition against Sorto's removal.  Supporters also marched for Pedro Salmeron, also of the Charlotte area, whom Hernandez-Paris says ICE agents detained, while he was on his way to work.

"One of the challenges is many of these youth were unaccompanied minors, and when they went to immigration court they didn't have appropriate representation in court," he said.

"There have been a large number of young men who have been deported who have been killed already because of gang violence and we fear for their safety."

Cox Media Group