GUESTS
Michel Marizco, reporter, Fronteras: The Changing America Desk
David Damore, political science professor, UNLV
BY MICHEL MARIZCO -- Nine Mexican activists who tried to cross the border into Arizona without papers Monday are in United States custody. The group is trying to test American immigration laws.
A small crowd on both sides of the border in Nogales chanted and pounded on the border fence. They demanded that immigration agents release the nine activists. Six were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children, then returned to Mexico to study before the Obama administration started its deferred action plan last year. Three more voluntarily returned to Mexico recently to support them.
Adriana Diaz left four months before Obama’s plan kept some young immigrants living illegally in the U.S. from getting deported.
"We’re expecting a positive result, a good response from the authorities and the Obama administration and yeah, we want to come home," she said before walking into the port of entry's pedestrian crossing.
The immigrants are currently being held in a detention center in Nogales, Ariz. According to their lawyer, they all asked for asylum on humanitarian grounds.