If you goWhat: Broken Hearts VigilWhere: 100 S. Clinton, SyracuseWhen: Friday, 5 p.m.Cost: Free

A vigil to advocate for immigrant families and end deportation will be held tomorrow at 5 p.m. in downtown Syracuse.The goal of the ‘Broken Hearts Vigil’ is to show support for the Child Citizen Protection Act currently under review in the House of Representatives. HR 182 would permit judges to exercise personal discretion when passing judgment on whether to deport illegal immigrants, according to the Library of Congress’ Web site.The Broken Hearts campaign calls for an end to the mandatory deportation of parents of U.S. citizen children. The event is being organized by the Detention Task Force, a coalition of Syracuse-area volunteers calling for discussion and comprehensive change in current immigration policy. According to the group’s Web site, more than 100,000 parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported since 1997. ‘It’s a place to begin for our region to have a deeper conversation about immigration,’ said Pat Rector, a member of Detention Task Force and a co-organizer of the event. ‘Instead of looking at these whole categories of people, we’re looking at each individual family and their circumstances. We think that really brings about some more rational and humane understanding of the human life involved here.’Camila Valenzuela, a senior sociology and political science major, is an intern with the Detention Task Force and has been working with the task force since December as part of a community research fellowship. ‘Prior to the fellowship I didn’t even know that immigration issues were a big deal in Syracuse but they are,’ Valenzuela said.Valenzuela said she is working to develop immigrant law workshops to train volunteers in the different avenues of relief available to incarcerated immigrants.Valenzuela will also be compiling narratives of the detainees currently incarcerated. She said she thinks their stories will serve to illustrate inherent problems with immigration policies. Valenzuela said she’s visited undocumented immigrants who are forced to share jail cells with rapists and other high criminals. ‘There is just no regard for their human rights,’ she said. ‘There’s just no respect and it’s really shocking because that happens right here in the U.S. They say we’re a beacon of hope, freedom, democracy, blah, blah, blah – but it’s not real.’

jmterrus@syr.edu