Board letter of support for local family facing possible deportation

To the Honourable Ministers Marco Mendicino and Sean Fraser,

As we get ready for Mother’s Day, the New Westminster Board of Education wants to reiterate our unequivocal support for a local mother, and for her husband and child who were targets of a Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) action. Our Board condemns the surveillance and arrest of parent Adriana Rosales Contreras by CBSA, who was taken into custody only minutes after dropping her daughter off at Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary School. We call on government to allow Adriana, her husband Alberto, and their daughter to remain safely in Canada and stay as valued members of our neighbourhood and school communities.

It is outrageous that CBSA first tracked a kindergarten student, then arrested and held the mother until she complied with their demands, and are now trying to deport them.  Adriana and her husband Alberto have lived and worked in Canada for more than 12 years. They have been honest, hard-working, productive members of our community, and like any other parent feels the need to do, they enrolled their born-and-raised-in-Canada daughter in school, only to have that care for their child used against them.

Our responsibility is to ensure public schools are safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all children and families who live in our community.  The efforts by CBSA to deport this family undermine the integrity of our work and are harming the family, the safety and security of our schools, and the sense of community.  Their actions deny the child’s right to safety and an education, create fear and suspicion, and push vulnerable children and families underground – all of which present far more dangerous and predatory conditions for people in precarious situations.

CBSA: stay away from our schools.  Stop your harm.

Minister Mendicino and Minister Fraser: step in and step up. Let Adriana, Alberto and their Canadian-born daughter stay in Canada and in New Westminster. Then do better, and change your rules and practices to prevent this from happening again.

Community: let this local family know you care, share your support at: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/keep-adriana-and-alberto-home=

In solidarity and support,
New Westminster Board of Education

 

CC: Mr. Peter Julian, MP

 

PDF: Board letter of support for local family facing possible deportation