SOKY Indivisible hosts protest in support of Ernesto Manuel-Andres

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A group of protestors peacefully set up outside Representative Brett Guthrie’s office, hoping for the release of Ernesto Manuel-Andres, who is still in ICE custody.

“To date, not one elected official has gotten us any answers or spoken publicly about this. Ernesto’s situation is not political. He did everything by the book. He doesn’t even have a traffic violation to his name… There’s no place I’d rather be on World Refugee Day than in Bowling Green, Kentucky standing up for Ernesto. We expect answers and we expect them now,” Luma Mufleh, the founder and CEO of Fugees Family, a non-profit that has been in support of Ernesto, said.

Luma drove from Ohio all the way to Bowling Green to take part in the protest.

A few protestors actually went inside Guthrie’s office as well, before the Warren County Sheriff’s Office showed up and peacefully talked them out.

“We went in about 4:25, and they did not respond. There were several… he came out a couple of times but would not respond. They asked us to leave, he locked the door. He said he was calling the police department… when the sheriff’s department came, we talked to the sheriff’s department and we respectfully left,” Cathy Severns, one of the protestors who went inside, with SOKY Indivisible said.

As a teacher, one protestor says he worries about situations like this happening to his students.

“When I heard about the story and I got information from other teachers, I thought about the students I teach here at Warren County Public Schools… and just terrified that it could happen to them if they were in his shoes,” William Compton said.