'Stop the raids!'

People came from many parts of Ohio to fill Iglesia Nueva Luz on Cleveland’s West Side on Sept. 10. They were farm workers, poultry processing workers, union organizers, community organizers, church leaders from a wide variety of denominations, and family, friends, and supporters of the immigrants who have been swept up in recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

Saulito Arellano, son of Elvira Arellano, and Emma Lozano, Exec. Dir. of Centro Sin Fronteras (Center Without Borders) at Sept. 10 meeting. WW photo: Susan Schnur

The week before, 180 workers at the Koch Foods, a chicken processing plant in Fairfield, Ohio, were arrested in a coordinated sting operation by ICE agents and Butler County sheriffs.

A United Food and Commercial Workers organizing drive had been going on in the plant for the previous eight months. The organizers were making great headway. By the evening shift after the raid, Koch bosses had hired enough new workers to get back in operation.

A Day of Action has been called for Oct. 24.

Stanley Miller, executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, said the current raids are similar to the practice of slave grabbing of former years. Miller will introduce a resolution of support for immigrant rights at the upcoming Ohio NAACP conference.

The high point of the rally was the inspirational presence of Saul “Saulito” Arellano, age 8, son of Evira Arellano, who was arrested in Los Angeles in August and deported to Mexico. Standing on a chair to reach the microphone, he told the packed church: “I want to tell all of you to tell President Bush: Stop the raids! Stop the deportations! Stop the separation of families!”

Saulito Arellano’s guardians brought powerful messages as well. Emma Lozano, executive director of Centro Sin Fronteras, reminded the crowd that no one talks about why Elvira Arellano had to move to the United States. Her parents were corn farmers. When the Mexican economy was flooded with cheap corn as a result of NAFTA, they had to leave their farm and find work in the maquiladoras. When even that work would not support her, she came to Chicago and worked as a custodian at O’Hare Airport.

Saulito Arellano’s other guardian, the Rev. Walter Coleman, called the raids “ethnic cleansing.”

Veronica Isabel Dahlberg, executive director of Hispana Organizadas de Lake y Ashtabula—HOLA—of Painesville, Ohio, chaired the rally.

The immigration struggle in Painesville ratcheted up on May 18 when ICE agents arrested 45 people, mostly farm workers. Since then, Dahlberg has organized three marches and rallies, bringing ever greater numbers of organizations together to fight for justice for immigrants.

Throughout Ohio, in churches, political organizations, community organizations and unions, immigrants are fired up and are getting out their message: “We are here to stay.”