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On Wednesday evening, some 75 people stuffed into a Mountainview Community Center meeting room to listen to the personal testimonies of five panelists - each related to recent raids perpetrated in nearby neighborhoods by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, often in coordination with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD).
Among those in attendance at the forum were SDPD Captain Cesar Solis, City Council member Ben Hueso (of District 8) and Council President Pro Tem Tony Young (of District 4). The event was conducted in Spanish, and English-only speakers were provided ear pieces which broadcast real-time translations of the speakers.
Pedro Rios, of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the group which put together the meeting, told the audience that his organization is seeking for the City Council to adopt a resolution denouncing the raids and for SDPD to revise their rules regarding cooperation with federal immigration officers.
Captain Solis acknowledged that during his 18-month tenure his agency has not received any requests from ICE but that nonetheless SD police have collaborated with officials in immigration enforcement.
“I’m not saying we don’t ever work with federal agents because on occasion we do,” he told the audience. He agreed to arrange a meeting between the AFSC and SDPD Chief William Landsdowne, stating that current rules are “a policy that can be reviewed and changed.”
One of the panelists, whose name I believe was Bevelin (?), shared that her husband had been harassed by SD police in a donut shop last year and that they had called ICE on him. He has remained in jail for the last year, she said.
She added that her husband is a hard worker and faithful tax payer, and that one of her children is an honors student at a local school with a 3.99 GPA. “There are worse people out in the streets and they are locking up our people?” she asked the room.
She admitted that while prior to her husband’s arrest the family had been doing fairly well financially, with him now in jail they are probably going to need to apply for welfare. She is concerned about her family’s future if her husband is deported: her four children were born in the United States and do not speak Spanish very fluently, she said.
Another young woman, Leslie Munoz, shared that over 15 agents had closed down her street in order to arrest her parents on immigration charges last February. Leslie, who just finished her junior year of high school, is now raising her younger brother and sister and visits her parents in Tijuana on the weekends, she said.
Making payments on her family’s house has become incredibly stressful reported the recently-turned 17-year-old. Between attending school full-time and taking care of her siblings, she has been unable to produce the money required to supplement the $80 a week her parents are now making in Mexico to cover the bills. “Our case is just like many others happening around the nation,” she lamented.
Marcos Castillo, another panelist, explained to the room that his full-ride college scholarship had been snatched away from him when officials discovered his immigration status. Marcos, who says he has lived in the United States since he was 4-years-old, persevered and recently graduated from San Diego State, working while in school to pay his tuition.
Marcos told the room that his sister also graduated from college in the United States with a degree in Information Technology yet, despite her degree, is only able to work in restaurants due to her immigration status. He framed the immigration debate as a matter of human rights.
Following the testimonies, Council member Ben Hueso addressed the audience, telling them (in Spanish) that he has friends and family also affected by the raids and that the issue is “close to his heart.”
Pedro Rios, of the AFSC, announced that his group had given copies of actions taken by other city governance groups to the Council members and police captain, and looked forward to following up with them on changing and/or creating policy to support immigrants’ rights in the wake of an upcoming national surge of ICE's ranks in accordance with the Secure Border Fence Act (with 52 new teams being added to the current 13 teams, he said) and the continued threat of raids harrowing San Diego’s immigrant community.
TO E-MAIL CITY COUNCIL:
 http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/
FOR MORE INFO ON AFSC-SAN DIEGO: http://www.afsc.org/pacificsw/sandiego.htm
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