Members of the community, occupiers, and immigration groups gathered at Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to protest the deportation of Blanca Cardenas. Police arrested Cardenas earlier this month after refusing to leave her home, which she and her husband say was illegally foreclosed on by Bank of America. The protest ended peacefully.

IO News: "We're at Placita Olvera. Today is March eleventh, and you're watching Insightout News. Earlier today protesters gathered here at the Placita Olvera in support of recently deported Blanca Cardenas.

Protester: "We know what this is about. This is about Blanca, this is about a broken system with the banks, and the housing crisis, it has to stop. What the banks are doing to the families, it has to come to an end. Too many families are being destroyed, too many children are going homeless over the profits the banks are making."

IO News: "Blanca's home was recently foreclosed upon by Bank of America. She and her husband Gerardo had recently filed for bankruptcy in order to put a hold on any potential sales of the home. Despite the litigation that is still going on for the bankruptcy paperwork, the bank sold the home to an investor. Three weeks ago the investor came to the home with police demanding that she and her family leave the home. Blanca refused and was taken into custody by the LAPD. While in custody, it was discovered that Blanca does not have proper immigration paperwork, and she was turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency who quickly deported her back to Mexico. Blanca leaves a seventeen month old child and a fourteen year old child, both American citizens, her husband is also an American citizen."

IO News: "How come Blanca never sorted out her immigration paperwork?"

Gerardo Quinones: "Ok. What happened is that since she was, about two years ago, she was arrested and ...straight across we went to somebody, and they told us we would have to wait ten years before we could do anything so we were waiting for that time to come... to happen."

IO News: "And how much longer did you need to wait before she could do anything?"

Gerardo Quinones: "Well, now it's even worse...now they say that it is twenty years because we were fighting it , so we're going to try to see what will happen and we're hoping everything comes out right."

IO News: "And are you still filing for bankruptcy on the home, are you still fighting for the home?"

Gerardo Quinones: "We're fighting for the home, we're...the bankruptcy is already filed , so we're, we're still protected. We should be home right now."

IO News: "The protest rallied here at Olvera Street, they held a musical performance and speeches before they passed city hall and over to the Federal Detention Building. We spoke to some of the protesters today to find out why exactly they came out in support of Blanca."

Ricardo Yanez, Protester: "I'm here to support Blanca, all my family, my kids, and myself, because we want to support no more injustices because we also have houses. I have children and a family, and I don't want them separated from me like they separated the family from Blanca."

Nora, Protester "Well, she never came here with any intention to do harm to anybody, she's a hard-working parent who had her house, had her family, been here, she was no harm to anybody. I believe people who are here in the United States to better improve the United States, become better, or make the United States better should have a right to be here."

IO News: "Blanca's family has stated that they will continue to fight to bring her back to the United States. Immigration officials have stated that this is not the first time that Blanca has been deported to Mexico, she was deported over ten years ago, though she came back to the country.

This is Margot Paez signing off for Insightout News.

Cross-posted at InsightOut News.