BRING LUCY BACK!
Montreal Community Organizer for the rights of undocumented women and workers, LUCY FRANCINETH GRANADOS arrested, detained and deported on April 13th, 2018!
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At 6am on March 20th, CBSA entered the home of Lucy Francineth Granados, a member of the Non Status Women’s Collective and ATTAP (Temporary Workers Association), and violently arrested her, injuring her arm. She was detained at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre pending deportation.
CONTEXT
After being threatened by the maras (criminal gangs), Lucy traveled alone through Mexico on the infamous La Bestia train to the US and later to Canada, her husband having been killed in an accident. Her refugee application was refused but she remained in Canada undocumented. She lived in Montreal for 9 years and was active in community organizations such as the Non Status Women’s Collective and the Temporary Agency Workers Union (ATTAP).
Lucy is the sole financial support for her three children. They live in Guatemala with their grandmother and depend entirely on the remittances sent by their mother for all their basic needs (food, shelter, school fees, etc.).
In 2017, Lucy filed a humanitarian application for permanent residence in an attempt to regularize her status. In January, a CBSA officer informed her lawyer that Lucy’s file would not be studied unless she turned herself in to face deportation. However, Canadian immigration law says that the Minister must study all humanitarian applications inside Canada; the CBSA officer illegally misrepresented the situation. Neither Immigration nor CBSA have responded to her lawyer’s demand that the situation be clarified. According to Immigration Canada information, her file is being evaluated, and a response would normally have been expected at any time if she had been allowed to remain in Canada.
Neither Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale nor Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen intervened and Lucy was deported before her file was determined.
— Organized with our allies the Immigrant Workers Centre