With the U.S. Senate poised to vote on an immigration bill late Thursday or Friday, New England supporters of undocumented workers staged a rally this afternoon at the regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in Burlington.
It's part of a week of action calling on the Obama Administration to halt the detention and deportation of undocumented workers who would be eligible for a path to citizenship under the terms of proposed immigration reform legislation.
Alan Pelaev, with the group "Resist The Raids, " said many Americans have a misconception about the implications of being undocumented.
"A lot of people have a misconception that it's a criminal offense, but its actually a civil offense to be undocumented in the US," he said.
Pelaev said there have been cases in which high schoolers and middle school students have been deported, even though a law passed a year ago should protect youth from being deported.
"Some of them qualify for deferred action, which is a law that Obama passed a year ago that protects youth who came here when they were young from being deported, but they are still being deported even though they are protected under the law, although they're still undocumented."
