Patricia Okoumou tells judge how much time she should serve for climbing Statue of Liberty
The message was so important that she should serve only one month of home confinement and community service, she said.
Immigrant activist Patricia Okoumou was hailed a shero by many when she climbed the Statue of Liberty on July 4 to protest President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.
Okoumou, 45, was back at making a headline-making statement last week when she climbed the Southwest Key building in Austin, Texas, to protest the company jailing immigrant children.
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Now, she is currently sporting an ankle monitor and confined to her Staten Island home after a judge restricted her freedom following her arrest in Austin, while awaiting sentencing on March 19 for the Statue of Liberty protest.
Okoumou believes she should serve only one month of home confinement and community service for the July 4 protest that resulted in the evacuation of Liberty Island, according to the New York Daily News.
Okoumou’s attorney filed a letter Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court in which several protests at the Statue of Liberty are cited, many of which date back to 1980, and none resulted in incarceration.
“The Statue of Liberty is known as a symbol of freedom from persecution the world over—indeed, the Statue herself cries out to those who ‘yearn to be free.’ Ms. Okoumou is far from the first to heed this call—to take up political protest at or on the Statue and to refuse to leave after doing so,” attorney Rhiya Trivedi wrote.
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Okoumou was arrested and charged with trespassing, interfering in an agency function and disorderly conduct for her July 4 stunt. Upon her release, she told reporters and supporters outside the Manhattan federal courthouse that she was inspired by a Michelle Obama.
“Our beloved first lady, that I care so much about, said, “When they go low, we go high.” And I went as high as I could.”
Of her recent arrest in Texas, Okoumou told truthout.com that she plotted the move for weeks and “targeted CEO Juan Sánchez.”
“He is a billionaire who is making money off of this detention center. He makes about $750 to $770 per day per child at his detention centers,” she added. “Obviously, his interest is in making money and not hosting migrant children, as his staff want us to believe. So, I wanted to deliver the postcards that my friends and supporters have written down to these children who are in cages. And I went and delivered them.”
Trump previously slammed Okoumou for the scene she caused at Lady Liberty; calling her a “clown” during a campaign rally in Montana.
