Activists block courthouse, immigration hearings canceled for the day
Source: Arizona Daily Star {Tucson}
A protest today by immigration rights activists continued in Tucson for more than four hours
prompting the federal court to shutdown a deportation process known as Operation Streamline for the day.
About 80 immigrant rights activists are protesting at the federal courthouse downtown, blocking entrances
as well as buses carrying people to hearing that could result in their deportation. By noon police had used
power saws to remove two of about 10 protesters who had used chains to attach themselves to the wheels of the bus,
The group stopped the bus on the Interstate 10 frontage road as it approached the courthouse, and
some of the activists chained themselves to the wheels while others hung banners on it critical of the
fast-track immigration deportation court process.
<snip>
The protest started about 8 a.m., quickly escalating to a blockade on the driveway into the courthouse
at the corner of West Congress Street and South Granada Avenue. Later, some some demonstrators stopped
a bus carrying immigrants to court for a hearing under the Operation Streamline program. Implemented in
Tucson in 2008, Operation Streamline was supposed to fast-track up to 100 prosecutions of immigrants a day.
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/activists-block-courthouse-immigration-hearings-canceled-for-the-day/article_884dc9da-3287-11e3-918e-0019bb2963f4.html
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