SAN ANTONIO – At least 100 protesters critical of the President Barack Obama's record number of deportations rallied on the Fourth of July in front of the Shrine of Texas Liberty demanding, "President Obama, stop the deportations."
"Sign the executive order now that's on your desk," said Jaime Martinez, the march organizer and founder of the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy Educational Foundation.
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Martinez said too many immigrant parents are being taken away from their children born in the U.S.
"That's going to happen when my dad gets deported and my baby brother has no dad to support him financially," said 22-year-old Tanairi Ochoa, one of the protestors at Alamo Plaza.
Ochoa said if her father in Arizona is sent back to Mexico, taxpayers then would have to cover the cost of care for her 3-year-old brother, who was born with a chronic illness.
She was among those at the rally who also expressed concern over the tens of thousands of immigrant children who have risked their lives to reach the U.S.
Ochoa said she fears sending them back to Central America would be a death sentence.
The high school valedictorian and St. Mary's graduate with degrees in political science and international relations said her family initially fled the cartel-ravaged Mexican state of Sinaloa because of the violence there.
She said, "You can't cross the street because you don't know if you're going to get shot by people on motorcycles or walking with guns."
Ochoa said she understands some of the hardships suffered by unaccompanied minors on their journey north.
She said it was hard enough making the weeklong trek twice with her parents across the Sonoran desert -- the first time when she was only age 3.
Ochoa described her second trip at age 7.
"For the last three days, we didn't have any water. When we got here, the coyote held us hostage until a relative paid $5,000 for each of us."
On Thursday in McAllen, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a Congressional hearing on the border children arriving in the Rio Grande Valley, "It's the right decision from my perspective to immediately deport them."
Perry said he believes allowing them to stay in the U.S. only would encourage others.