1. We, the classmates, teachers, friends, church, family, and community supporters call on the immigration court to terminate deportation proceedings for Rafael Benavides, Annelise Pineda, and Oriana Benavides-Pineda and grant them and the rest of the Benavides-Pineda family asylum now.
2. The Benavides-Pineda family entered the United States with legal travel documents. Active members of the opposition movement in Venezuela, Rafael and other family members have been physically beaten and attacked for protesting the Maduro regime. They are part of the mass exodus of political refugees from Venezuela, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, seeking shelter in the United States and several other Central American, Latin American and Caribbean nations.
3. Rafael Benavides applied for asylum for himself and his family in July 2017. On November 12, 2017, while vacationing in Southern California, the Benavides-Pineda family accidentally drove across the border to Mexico, a common mistake on a confusing highway. This accident has put the family in an impossible and unnecessary situation, where despite their pending asylum process, they were detained and placed in deportation removal proceedings.
4. Thanks to broad support from students and the community, Rafael Simon Benavides was freed from the Georgia immigration detention center. However, he and his family still face the danger of deportation and are fighting for their right to stay with asylum.

THEREFORE, WE THE UNDERSIGNED:

1. Demand the immigration court terminate the Benavides-Pineda family’s deportation proceedings, and grant their asylum now!
2. Defend Berkeley’s Sanctuary City and California’s Sanctuary State status!
3. Demand an end to Trump’s racist and xenophobic attacks on immigrant communities---Shut down the child detention centers! No family separation or indefinite detention! Full citizenship for ALL immigrants, with and without papers!