Immigrant children say: 'Stop taking our dads!'
By
Sharon Danann
Painesville, Ohio
Published Jun 22, 2007 11:59 PM
In Painesville, Ohio, June 16, Father’s Day was honored with love, tears
and a courageous march and rally of several hundred immigrants and their
supporters. They were protesting the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement
raids that resulted in 43 arrests and deportations, mainly of Latino
workers.
Immigrants give new meaning to Father’s Day.
WW photo: Martha Grevatt
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The children of jailed or deported men carried a banner at the front of the
march, proclaiming, “Stop Taking Our Dads!”
The march was a sea of the red flags of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee,
emblazoned with the slogan, “¡Hasta la Victoria!” (Until
Victory)
Many people held signs with photos of their now-absent fathers, with heartfelt
expressions such as, “My father is the soul of my family.”
March participants traveled from Toledo, Youngstown, Cleveland, Columbus and as
far away as Cincinnati, Ohio. Event organizer Victoria Dahlberg, executive
director of Hispanas Organizadas de Lake y Ashtabula, expressed regret that
there were not more Painesville residents in attendance, but acknowledged the
fear that kept them away.
There were delegations from Oberlin College; the Ashtabula County AFL-CIO; and
the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ, an African-American church in Ashtabula,
among others.
Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of FLOC, declared: “We are
Mestizos, Native and Indigenous, with some Spanish ancestry. We have been here
in the Americas. We did not immigrate. The European-Americans are the
immigrants.”
After Velasquez spoke, a woman emerged from the crowd and tearfully took the
bullhorn. Her father had been on his way to work when ICE agents stopped the
van he was in. He and others were arrested. Now he is in jail in
Youngstown.
She had been told that she would have to come up with $5,000 before anyone
could even start working on his case. She didn’t know what to do. A
baseball cap was placed on the ground in front of the speakers and it was soon
buried under a mound of cash. Over $500 was collected.
The raides are targeting children as well. Two sisters, aged 12 and 9, spoke of
being awakened in the pre-dawn hours by ICE agents. They were required to
report with their younger brother to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
in Cleveland.
Dahlberg commented sarcastically, “What a wonderful use of our tax
dollars.” The girls’ mother stood by them as they bravely spoke
out, wiping tears from her face. The government agencies are the real
terrorists.
United Church of Christ pastor Nozomi Ikuta Watson spoke of the experiences of
her Japanese grandparents who were not allowed to become citizens. She said the
immigrant struggle raises “broad issues of justice.”
The Rev. Steve Sargent from the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ pledged to
march with the immigrant community “until the immigration laws are just
and fair.” As he spoke of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and of Cesar
Chavez, the crowd applauded. Rev. Sargent declared, “Your struggle is our
struggle,” to help express working-class unity.
The march eventually returned to its starting point, Kiwanis Recreational Park,
silent by deliberate choice. But upon their arrival, marchers broke into shouts
of, “¡Sí, se Puede!” (Yes, we can!)
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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