#LetFranciscoStay
The Court date has been postponed until 2025
We will keep you informed and updated. In the meantime we have to continue advocating for Francisco and our migrant community, for refugees, kids still in cages and many migrants in prison.
WHO’S
FRANCISCO AGUIRRE
Francisco Aguirre is an influential and brilliant leader in the immigrant rights and labor movements, a refugee from El Salvador, a long-time Portland resident, a talented musician, and a devoted father. He is also experiencing the horror that far too many Central American parents know: Grieving a senselessly murdered child. Cruelly, he faces years in prison for fleeing his own potential death in El Salvador.
In 2014, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents came to Francisco’s home and tried to arrest him without a warrant and separate him from his family. Francisco then publicly sought sanctuary in the Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon.
NOW
In a deeply unusual and likely political move, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Francisco with re-entry fifteen years after a previous deportation to El Salvador, which he had fled due to extreme violence against him and his family by the military.
Two weeks after Francisco and his family left the church, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigators came to their home to question and harass them about food stamps. Moises, Francisco’s eldest child, hid under the bed while the investigators questioned his dad and step-mom. Afterward, Francisco tried to reassure Moises that the DHS agents weren’t after him, but Moises was left traumatized by the situation. Moises kept begging to go back to El Salvador because he was scared of ending up in DHS custody. Finally, in July 2015, he flew back.
MOISES HAS BEEN MURDERED
On February 2, 2016, Francisco received the worst news any parent could hear: Moises had been murdered in El Salvador. Reports are that two gunmen were ordered to kill him. The investigation is ongoing but the chances of finding the perpetrators are unlikely given that people don’t want to cooperate out of fear of retaliation.
Moises was just 19 years old.
Francisco is a pillar of his community and his son Moises often volunteered to work with him. He’s been active in helping defend the rights of workers and other immigrants Portland. Yet, the DOJ’s prosecution of Francisco continues. His trial is scheduled to begin April 19th, 2016.
Version en Español
Historia de Francisco: Francisco Aguirre es un líder brillante e influyente que forma parte de los movimientos de migrantes y derechos laborales, es un refugiado de El Salvador, un músico talentoso, un residente de Portland desde hace mucho tiempo, además de ser un esposo y padre dedicado. En este momento, él también está pasando por el horror que demasiadxs padres/madres centroamericanxs sufren: El dolor de perder a un hijo que fue asesinado sin sentido. Cruelmente, en este momento Francisco está enfrentando una condena de varios años de prisión por haber huido de su propia muerte potencial en El Salvador. Francisco construyó una vida en los Estados Unidos después de sobrevivir y escapar de la terrible violencia en El Salvador. En diciembre del 2013, su hijo de 17 años de edad, Denis Moisés Escalante Aguirre, conocido como Moisés pos sus amigxs y familia, hizo el viaje desde El Salvador para reunirse con su padre sin informarle. Francisco recibió una llamada de la patrulla fronteriza para informarle que tenían a su hijo pero se negaron a darle cualquier información adicional. Francisco pasó tres semanas llamando a todas partes en busca de Moisés antes de que el gobierno finalmente lo contactará de nuevo. Tuvieron que esperar otro mes para obtener la libertad de Moisés, mientras estuvo en un “albergue” (“shelter”) que él describió como una cárcel. Moisés nunca discutió los detalles de su experiencia allí, pero estaba claramente traumatizado. Después de que agentes de inmigración (ICE) intentarán hacer una redada en la casa de Francisco y separarlo de sus tres hijxs, dos quienes son ciudadanas estadounidenses, Francisco busco santuario públicamente en la Iglesia Luterana Augustana en el Noreste de Portland. Moisés estaba aterrado y decía que no quería acabar otra vez en custodia del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS por sus siglas en inglés), pero Francisco le aseguró que él tenía un caso de asilo abierto y que estaba seguro en Oregon. Como represalia por haber buscado protección con la comunidad de fe, el gobierno federal empezó un proceso legal contra Francisco por haber regresado a los Estados Unidos despues de haber sido deportado mas de QUINCE AŇOS atras. Dos semanas después de que Francisco y su familia dejarán la iglesia, investigadorxs de DHS vinieron a su casa para cuestionarlxs y acosarlxs sobre estampillas de comida (food stamps) por las cuales habían aplicado para poder darles de comer a sus dos hijas pequeñas. Moisés, lleno de terror, se escondió debajo de la cama de su cuarto mientras lxs investigadorxs estaban cuestionando a su padre y madrastra. Más tarde, Francisco trató de tranquilizar a Moisés diciéndole que no lo estaban buscando a él, pero Moisés estaba temblando de miedo. Ni siquiera su juego favorito, el fútbol, ayudaba a que Moisés se sintiera mejor. Moisés siguió suplicando que lo dejaran regresar a El Salvador porque tenía mucho miedo de volver a caer en las manos de DHS. Finalmente, en Julio del 2015, Moisés voló de regreso a El Salvador. Francisco describe lo que ocurrió: “El 2 de Febrero del 2016 como a las 10 pm, recibí un mensaje en el Facebook donde alguien me estaba dando a saber que mi hijo había sido asesinado por dos hombres. Yo no lo podia creer. Empeze a buscar en las noticias para ver si había algo que hablara sobre lo mismo, pero no había nada. Trate de comunicarme con él pero no me contestaba. Seguí llamando hasta que la policía local contestó el teléfono y me dijeron que era verdad. Me explicaron que le dispararon 16 veces con dos armas diferentes, sus piernas casi se le desprendieron de su cuerpo por los balazos. La única información que tienen de parte de personas que vieron lo ocurrido es que dos hombres lo llamaron por su nombre cuando jugaba futbol. Cuando respondió, le dijeron que se acercara, le dijeron que alguien les había ordenado que lo mataran, y empezaron a dispararle. Los policías me dijeron que van a investigar pero sabemos que no lo harán. La gente ayá tiene miedo de hablar sobre la situación por que no quieren ponerse en riesgo al decir algo.” Moisés tenía 19 años. Francisco, su esposa Dora, y sus hijas pequeñas necesitan a la comunidad para defender el imperativo moral de proporcionar refugio para lxs necesitadxs. La muerte trágica de Moisés también demuestra la necesidad de que DHS conceda el estatus de protección temporal (TPS por sus siglas en inglés) a personas centroamericanas que han huido de la violencia para no terminar muertxs. Francisco es un pilar de la comunidad de Portland. Fue coordinador del centro de trabajadores de VOZ Proyecto de Educación Sobre Los Derechos del Trabajador (VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project), una organización, dirigida por los propios trabajadores, que empodera a migrantes y jornalerxs a que tomen control de sus condiciones de trabajo por medio del desarrollo de liderazgo, proceso de organizarse, y educación comunitaria. Por medio de su trabajo, Francisco ha ayudado a trabajadorxs a recuperar $500,000 en salarios robados, a mejorar estándares de salud y seguridad en el lugar de trabajo, y a organizar limpiezas de vecindarios. Moisés a menudo participaba como voluntario en las actividades del centro. Francisco es un defensor apasionado de los derechos de las personas y es un músico que canta sobre causas de justicia social. Francisco también es un pionero del movimiento nacional enfocado en abogar por los derechos de los jornalerxs y ha trabajado cercanamente en colaboración con la Red Nacional de Jornaleros y Jornaleras (NDLON por sus siglas en inglés). Mas de 118 organizaciones laborales, organizaciones de fe, de derechos de los migrantes, y de derechos civiles ya se han unido para exigir al Departamento de Justicia (DOJ por sus siglas en inglés) que retire los cargos injustos contra Francisco. Por favor, únase con nosotros a pedir al DOJ que retire los cargos contra Francisco, para que él pueda llevar en paz el duelo por la muerte de su hijo, y a pedir al DHS que otorgue el TPS a personas centroamericanas, y así nadie más tenga que llorar por la muerte de un ser querido causada por la crueldad del sistema migratorio. Por favor, si también puede donar en la pagina de recaudación de fondos establecida por NDLON para apoyar los gastos funerarios de Moisés y gastos de manutención de la familia durante este tiempo horrible se lo agradeceremos de todo corazón.
We are now launching the second phase of the campaign. Please sign and share the petition demanding that ICE allow Francisco to present his strong refugee claims to an immigration judge and stop terrorizing this family!
THESE ARE OUR DEMANDS
- To DOJ: Drop the Charges Against Francisco
- To DHS/White House: Grant TPS to Central American refugees like Moises so others
aren’t returned to their deaths - To DHS/DOJ: Stop referring for prosecution/prosecuting Central Americans for
fleeing violence
Father Greg Boyle: Stop the Prosecution of Francisco Aguirre!
UPDATE:
IMPORTANT VICTORY WITH DOJ BUT THE FIGHT CONTINUES WITH ICE!
Great news, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped the prosecution against Francisco! This means Franciso is no longer facing prison time and an unjust criminal reentry charge. Now, it’s up to us to double-down on our efforts and get ICE to end its harassment of Francisco Aguirre and his family.
With your help, more than a hundred organizations signed support letters, thousands of individuals signed petitions, and cities around the country held rallies and vigils demanding that the charges be dropped. This is an important victory in his case and we hope that it will serve as an example for the DOJ to stop prosecuting refugees escaping violence.
UPDATE#2
Francisco is appealing ICE’s attempt to deport him through a Final Administrative Removal Order to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the meantime, he continues his activism! Today, the New York Times published a Letter to the Editor from Francisco about his story. Additionally, he was prominently featured in a recent human rights report about reentry prosecutions. Francisco is now eligible for a work permit, Thanks to the supporters around the nation he was able to collect the money to pay the application fee..
Less than one week later, ICE is up to its old tricks..
Rather than giving Francisco the opportunity to argue his case for asylum/withholding of removal before an immigration judge, ICE served him with a “Notice of Intent to Issue a Final Administrative Removal Order” (FARO), a little-known maneuver in which an ICE agent orders a non-citizen to be deported without even the limited judicial oversight provided by immigration court
United with Francisco Photos.
I owe my freedom to the people.
Mi libertad se la debo al pueblo
Many people stop doing their things to spend time with me in sanctuary, at court, planning and protesting.
I thank you all for your support and I invite you to please continue supporting my case that is not over yet.
You have the power to make the change, many people like me are under attack by ICE-ERO. Let´ s work together to have a more inclusive communities.
NDLON Nation Day Labor Network and other organizations in EL Salvador take Unidos Con Francisco Campaign and bring it imfront of US embasy in San Salvador in 2016
United With Francisco has been always advocating for the TPS holders to stay.
Please join us in calling on the DOJ to drop the charges against him so he can grieve his son’s death. Tell the DHS to grant Temporary Protected Status to Central Americans so that no one else suffers the same situation due to immigration system’s cruelty!
Share these images on your social networks. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use these hashtags:
#AsylumForFrancisoNow
#LetFranciscoAguirreStay #WeAreAllFrancisco #UnidosConfrancisco #KeepSanctuarySacred #UnitedwithFrancisco
Text of the Sign On Letter to DOJ
Organizations can sign on to the letter at this link: http://goo.gl/forms/Nh7R9zVz8L
March ___, 2016
Dear Attorney General Lynch, U.S. Attorney Williams, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nyhus,
We undersigned labor, faith, immigrant rights, and civil rights organizations are following up on the previous letter sent on September 8, 2015 and write to ask that you dismiss the reentry charges currently against Portland labor leader Francisco Aguirre (docket case: #3:14-cr-00400-JO-1). In addition to the concerns mentioned in the previous letter, we wanted to highlight the recent tragic murder in El Salvador of Mr. Aguirre’s 19-year-old son Denis Moises Escalante Aguirre, known as Moises by his friends and family.
Francisco was told by Salvadoran police that Moises had been playing soccer with friends when two men called his name. When he answered, they told him that they were ordered to kill him and shot him sixteen times. His legs almost fell apart from his body due to the impact of the shooting. Horrifically, Moises is just one of many close family members of Mr. Aguirre who have died from the violence in El Salvador.
Moises had been living in Oregon with his father after asking for asylum himself. He had become well-known by activists in Portland and accompanied his father in his work in the community. However, Moises had been so traumatized by his experiences in a child refugee detention center and was terrified by the targeting of his father by DHS and also the prosecution by DOJ, that he became convinced he would end up imprisoned again if he stayed in the United States. Moises begged to return to El Salvador and did so in July 2015. He was dead a little over six months later.
While Mr. Aguirre mourns his son and must explain their brother’s vicious murder to his two young U.S. citizen daughters, he and his family must also live in fear of the reentry charge he is facing from your office and the trial that begins April 19th. We request again that in light of the death of Moises, you exercise your prosecutorial discretion to drop the charge and let Mr. Aguirre and his family grieve in peace. We also request more generally that in light of the widespread violence in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), your office refrain from prosecuting for entry and reentry those fleeing violence and death in those countries. Moises is a tragic example of the real consequences of deterrence of refugees through prosecution.
Mr. Aguirre is an influential leader of the immigrant rights and labor movements, and he is a pillar within the community. He was the worker center coordinator for the VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project in Portland, which is a worker-led organization that empowers immigrants and day laborers to gain control over their working conditions through leadership development, organizing, and community education. Through his work as an organizer, he has helped workers collect $500,000 in stolen wages, has helped improve health and safety labor standards, and organized neighborhood clean-ups. He is a passionate advocate for people’s rights and is a musician who sings for social justice causes. Francisco is also a trailblazer of the national movement advocating for the rights of day laborers and has worked closely with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).
The prosecution of Mr. Aguirre would constitute a grave injustice for him, his family, and the community. We request that you dismiss the charges immediately.
Thank you,
Augustana Lutheran Church
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project
List of Organizations Who’ve Signed on to support Francisco Aguirre
AF3IRM Alerta Migratoria NC American Friends Service Committee-Miami American Friends Service Committee, Massachusetts Arkansas Restorative Justice Coalition Arkansas Voices for Children Auburn Seminary Augustana Lutheran Church Austin Jewish Voice for Peace Beacon Presbyterian Fellowship, Oakland California Immigrant Policy Center Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition CASA Casa Esperanza Casa Latina Cascadia Chapter of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon Causa Oregon Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (CSMM) Centro Legal de la Raza Church Council of Greater Seattle Church World Service Coalicion de Derechos Humanos Colectivo Son Jarocho Portland Comité Fuerza y Unidad MORENA Los Ángeles Comite VIDA Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) Communidades Construyendo Esperanza of Cherokee Park United Church Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County – Centro Jornalero Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) Community United Against Violence (CUAV) Congress of Day Laborers-New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice Conversations With Friends (MN) Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council Dare to Dream: Get Educated! Latina Conference Day Worker Center of Mountain View Detention Watch Network Disciples of Christ Refugee and Immigration Ministries Dolores Street Community Services Dominican Sisters of Houston Don Bosco Workers Inc. El Centro del Inmigrante El/La Para TransLatinas The Episcopal Network for Economic Justice First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Tucson, Arizona First Unitarian Church The Food Security and Social Justice Network (Tucson) Friends of Broward Detainees Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights Grassroots Leadership Greater Birmingham Ministries ICE out of Austin Immigrant Youth Coalition Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) Interfaith Coalition on Immigration, MN Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice Jesuit Social Research Insitute Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace-Portland, OR Jobs With Justice Journey Koinania Catholic Community Junta for Progressive Action Justice for Immigrants – San Jose Diocese Kairos-Milwaukie UCC Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center KIWA (Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance) LAOC Latin America & Caribbean Action Network (LACAN) Latino Faith Initiative – H.S. Power & Light Ministries Latino Union of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Living Hope Wheelchair Association Living Stages Madre Tierra Collective Malibu Community Labor Exchange Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition Migrant Rights Collective Mijente | Not1More Campaign National Center for Lesbian Rights National Day Laborer Organizing Network National Immigration Law Center National Lawyer’s Guild, UC Davis National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia North County Immigration Task Force North Texas Dream Opportunity Enterprises Organización De Migrantes Organizados, AC Organized Communities Against Deportations Orgullo P’urhépecha Pangea Legal Services Pax Christi Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) Peace Over Violence People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER) Pilgrim United Church of Christ Pitzer in Ontario Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD Regional) Pomona Economic Opportunity Center Portland AFL-CIO Portland Fellowship of Reconciliation Portland Jobs with Justice Presbyterian Peace Fellowship Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Pueblo Sin Fronteras Racial Justice Action Center Radical Women RADIO ALUMBRA RAIZ Red Nacional Salvadorena en el Exterior RENASE- WDC Reformed Church of Highland Park RENASE WDC SEIU-USWW Sisters of Mercy South Central Community SOA Watch Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) Southeast Immigrant Rights Network Southside Presbyterian Church Tucson, Arizona Southside Worker’s Center Southwest Conference United Church of Christ St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Staten Island Community Job Center Together Colorado Unidad Latina en Accion New Haven Unidad Latina en Accion NJ Unimundal Collective Unitarian Universalist Refugee & Immigrant Services & Education (UURISE) United We Dream University Lutheran Chapel of Berkeley Voces de la Frontera VOZ Workers Rights Education Project We Are One, Inc. We Belong Together WeCount! Wilco Justice Alliance (Williamson County, TX) Witness for Peace