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The Toledo Immigrant
Alliance and Rapid Response Network brought together
Guisselle Mendoza McDonald of the Latino Alliance of
Northwest Ohio, Baldemar Velasquez of the Farm Labor
Organizing Committee and Jesus Salas of Advocate for Basic
Legal Equality and Father Tony Gallagher, a retired Catholic
priest.
Velasquez and Father
Gallagher were particularly impassioned in their
denunciations of the immigration raids.
“We need to ask ourselves
if the current ICE tactics actually represent what northwest
Ohio citizens think and want,” said Father Gallagher. “We
need to act on the words of our country’s founders about
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We say we are
one nation under God then we need to treat immigrants as if
they are truly under God and equal in dignity to the rest of
us.”
Velasquez, connected the
Ohio ICE raids with the negative impact of trade agreements
on the rural areas of Mexico. “We are reaping what we have
sowed,” said Velasquez. “We displace people in Mexico with
our trade agreements, then we complain when rural people
come here. This raid in Sandusky is unconscionable. This is
about human beings and who we are as a nation.”
The ICE raids on the
previous Tuesday targeted the gardening and landscaping
company, which is now under investigation, according to
authorities. The raids left approximately 60 children
without at least one parent, say those organizing assistance
for the families.
According to ABLE’s Salas,
the legal aid agency will be part of the effort to bring
assistance. He condemned the raids as “offensive to American
values.”
Standing in support of the
Alliance were all three Lucas County Commissioners –
President Pete Gerken, Tina Skeldon Wozniak and Carol
Contrada. The commissioners issued a statement questioning
the action, as did a number of local officials.
McDonald condemned the
raids and promised that the Alliance would continue working
to assist the families affected. “This policy f heartless
and must end immediately,” she said of ICE’s efforts to root
out undocumented families and separate children from their
parents.
“Let’s not evolve into
Germany during the 1930s and Nazism,” said Velasquez at the
conclusion of his remarks.
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