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Baldemar Velásquez,
FLOC founder and president, addressed a group of about 40 people
at the union’s Broadway headquarters on Saturday evening, June
28, 2014. He stated the intent is to take a proactive,
grass-roots approach to the controversial issue of immigration.
Velásquez spoke of a recent case where a Toledo Latino was
arrested on charges that were dropped in mid-June. Yet he is
still being held in detention at the Lucas Co. Jail for federal
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to start the
deportation process. Lucas County officials and Advocates for
Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) have been contacted to sort out
the situation. Both agencies had a representative at the
meeting.
“I know there was a meeting here recently about making Toledo
friendly to immigrants,” said Velásquez. “If this kind of stuff
is happening, our police department—our community is not going
to look on them as too friendly, not too welcoming.”
Community organizer Ramón Pérez, who is assisting the
effort, told the group the FLOC associate memberships also will
serve to form a grass-roots group “to raise our voice in the
city of Toledo.” An estimated 80 to 90 people already have
purchased such $30 memberships, while about a dozen more did so
following the meeting. The goal is to have 300 to 400 Latinos
signed up in the next few weeks.
Velásquez explained that the memberships make the participants
part of a “bona fide labor union.” His plan is to seek support
from other labor unions in the area to press for recognition of
the FLOC picture ID as an accepted form of identification by law
enforcement agencies in Toledo. Recent changes in state laws in
Michigan and Ohio have now prevented many undocumented
immigrants from being able to obtain driver’s licenses.
“If the police stop you or detain you for whatever reason, you
have rights,” the FLOC leader told the group. “Don’t let
yourself be badgered to give information that they don’t need to
have.”
Velásquez asked for a committee of volunteers to accompany him
to an upcoming meeting with Toledo’s mayor and police chief,
where he plans to press the point that Toledo police will
recognize the ID cards. Many undocumented immigrants are
hesitant to cooperate with police, fearing they will be detained
and deported as a result.
“We want to trust the police and we want the police to trust
us,” he said. “We want to negotiate a collaborative agreement
because we want them to protect us. So we need to have
confidence in them that they’re not federal immigration cops.”
Velásquez stated he will pursue a similar agreement with
Lucas Co. Sheriff John Tharp. The two have discussed an
understanding that was established with the prior sheriff, but
the FLOC leader stated he wanted a “fresh” agreement. He told
the group he has “confidence this sheriff will cooperate with
us.”
“We want to make sure police understand that they are not
federal agents. They don’t know immigration law,” he said. “They
should stay out of immigration law and police local crimes and
work with our community.”
Speaking forcefully and standing resolute throughout the
meeting, Velásquez went back and forth between English and
Spanish. The FLOC leader also sounded a stern warning.
“If they give us problems on this, hey, we’ve got to make our
next move,” he said.
Velásquez explained the FLOC ID will be different from a
matricula consular card issued by the Mexican consulate for
Mexican nationals that many undocumented immigrants now carry.
That latter card is officially recognized by many city and
county agencies, mostly to obtain utilities, public and social
services.
“A matricula consular card doesn’t do squat for you if you’re
stopped by the police,” he said. “When you call the Consul, is
he going to intervene like FLOC is intervening?”
FLOC is planning to mobilize a march and rally through
Detroit’s Mexicantown on Aug. 8, demanding the resignation
of ICE Regional Director
Rebecca Adducci.
Out of the 28 ICE regions in the U.S., Velásquez stated the
Ohio-Michigan region has the third-highest deportation rate
under her watch.
“That means she’s deporting a lot of people for a lot of no good
reasons,” he said.
The FLOC leader explained that should not be happening under a
discretionary deportation policy announced by President
Barack Obama last year. But Velásquez and others maintain
questionable cases keep popping up in Northwest Ohio.
A man in the audience named Antonio stood up at the meeting and
stated in rapid Spanish that he had been stopped by police three
times “for being Mexican.”
Velásquez told the group about another recent case involving a
nine-year old girl, a U.S. citizen, who had both parents
deported back to México. She was allowed to return to South
Toledo under the care of her aunt, who also is an undocumented
immigrant. But the aunt was unable to enroll the girl in school,
until FLOC officials and others intervened by getting her
declared homeless by the school district and a guardian ad litem
was appointed.
FLOC and other groups have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of
seven individuals for being illegally detained by local law
enforcement in Northwest Ohio on behalf of the Border Patrol.
Mark Heller, ABLE managing attorney, told the group he
expects a trial to start by year’s end, but the legal aid agency
is still searching for Latino victims who were stopped on behalf
of the Border Patrol.
Heller stated the lawsuit has slowed down such stops, from an
estimated 1,200 detentions per year in recent years to
approximately 200 per year in 2013.
“We still believe they’re profiling Hispanics,” Heller
said.
“That’s all we can do. We can defend the people and defend the
discretion policy that the president has ordered to focus on
real criminals and not innocent people whose only crime is they
don’t have papers,” Velásquez said. “If we can reach an
understanding with our police department, who cares whether
there’s official (racial) profiling or not. We’re dealing with
it proactively.”
According to a press release issued last year by ICE after the
arrest of nearly 100 undocumented immigrants near Detroit, the
agency
“is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that
targets serious criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to
the security of our communities…and threats to national
security. ICE also prioritizes the arrest and removal of those
who game the immigration system including immigration fugitives
or criminal aliens who have been previously deported and
illegally re-entered the country.”
However, Velásquez stated FLOC is stepping up its efforts
because what ICE and the Border Patrol are telling the public is
not what’s happening in everyday practice, particularly in Ohio
and Michigan.
“I’m worried about the people who are here now, the people who
are being oppressed, being discriminated against, and taken
advantage of because of their undocumented status,” Velásquez
said.
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