Sanctuary Leaders
Fight Back Against ICE’s “Psychological Violence” and Fines
July
7, 2019
While Ramirez and
Espinal-Moreno agree with each other that these letters from ICE were intended
to intimidate and scare immigrants in sanctuary, they both say they've had the
opposite effect. They refuse to back down, they said, and they are “more
committed than ever” to fighting back. COURTESY OF GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP
Ivan Ramirez, a
13-year-old Guatemalan asylum seeker, says he can’t remember a time in his life
when he felt free. Now that the federal government intends to fine his mother
more than $300,000, he worries that whatever semblance of safety they have in
sanctuary is being threatened.
Ivan and his mother Hilda
Ramirez came to the United States fleeing familial violence in 2014. Since
then, they have been “under attack” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), the elder Ramirez said. They were detained together for almost a year
after first arriving in the United States. Since their release from detention,
they have been targeted for deportation. Because of ups and downs in their
immigration cases, they have been forced to take sanctuary twice in St. Andrews
Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. On July 4, soon after receiving a letter
from ICE informing her of a $303,620 fine, Ramirez told Rewire.News she
sees these financial penalties as part of a larger pattern of attacks against
immigrants in sanctuary.
“I think this is an attack
from the government against us. It comes from the racism of the government, and
the goal is that [ICE] wants to see us defeated,” Ramirez said. “They very well
know we don’t have that amount of money. We don’t have money, we don’t have
anything. Immigration wants to force us to be defeated.”
On July 2, NPR reported that the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, sent some undocumented immigrants notices
of its intent to fine them hundreds of thousands of dollars for “willfully” failing
to depart the United States after receiving a final removal order. The Washington
Post reported that ICE is issuing notices of
two types of fines: Immigrants with outstanding deportation orders are being
notified that they owe up to $799 a day, while immigrants who agreed to
voluntarily leave the United States but then didn’t face a lesser fine
(typically up to $4,792 total, though an immigration judge could increase the
penalty). “The agency must notify immigrants about the civil penalty before
imposing the fines and give them at least 30 days to dispute it,” according to
the Post.
At least three of the
immigrants who received fines are leaders in Colectivo Santuario, a nationwide collective
of immigrants in sanctuary organizing for their freedom.
They include Ramirez and
Edith Espinal-Moreno, who has been living in Ohio’s Columbus Mennonite Church
since she was ordered to be removed from the United States in 2017. The Mexican
asylum seeker took sanctuary to avoid deportation and being separated from her
two U.S.-citizen children. Espinal-Moreno has been hit with one of the highest
fines: $497,777.
“I felt mad when I saw
[the letter],” Espinal-Moreno told Rewire.News. “Immigration is
trying to scare people like me who are fighting to keep their families
together.”
Another member of
Colectivo, Rosa Ortez Cruz, was notified that ICE intends to fine her $314,007
for having “connived or conspired” to avoid deportation. The mother of four is
confined to a church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, because she fears for her
life if she is deported to Honduras.
Espinal-Moreno said the
federal immigration agency is trying to use “every tool” to “quiet” immigrants
in sanctuary, and these fines are simply the latest scare tactic. Ramirez
called the fines “psychological violence.”
“They keep attacking
people like us who are vulnerable,” Ramirez said. “I’m very sad because
immigration is torturing me psychologically.”
“What they are doing to us
is unjust, like what they did to Samuel,” Ramirez said, referencing Samuel
Oliver-Bruno, who was also a leader in Colectivo Santuario. The father and
husband from Mexico was confined to CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham,
North Carolina, for 11 months before leaving the church in November 2018 to
attend what was supposed to be a routine biometrics appointment for deferred
action at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office.
Oliver-Bruno was tackled to the ground by ICE agents in
front of his family and supporters. Once in custody, he was quickly moved
through ICE’s detention system before being deported. In an interview with Rewire.News after
his deportation, Oliver-Bruno said he believed it was a planned, coordinated
attack—that USCIS and ICE had worked together to detain him. Rewire.News confirmed that USCIS and ICE
communicated about the sanctuary leader’s case prior to detaining Oliver-Bruno.
Several months after
Oliver-Bruno’s deportation, ICE instructed Hilda Ramirez to leave her sanctuary
church and appear at a field office. Citing Oliver-Bruno’s deportation,
Ramirez decided against attending the meeting,
believing it would lead to detention and deportation. In the letter ICE sent to
Ramirez informing her of the fine, the agency cited her refusal to attend the
meeting as one of the reasons she was being fined.
Sanctuary leaders who
spoke to Rewire.News expressed concerns that these fines are
just the beginning, and that federal immigration agencies plan to remove
undocumented immigrants from sanctuary churches.
“Everything feels bad and
I worry it will be worse, but we have to keep fighting,” Espinal-Moreno said. “Immigration
is looking for a way to get us out of sanctuary. I think that’s why they’re sending
these letters. I don’t know what their next step will be. I don’t know if they
will come inside the church, so in Columbus, we are ready for anything to
happen. We are thinking about everything.”
Churches are considered
sensitive locations under a 2011 ICE memo that says immigration enforcement
should not be conducted in houses of worship, hospitals, and schools. The memo
is not a law, or even a policy. It can technically be rescinded at any time,
and already the memo allows for many exceptions that can be loosely interpreted
by ICE. In 2016, for example, ICE lured an undocumented immigrant out
of a church with text messages pretending to be a family member.
ICE did not respond to a
request for comment from Rewire.News by the time of
publication
While Ramirez and
Espinal-Moreno agree the letters from ICE were intended to intimidate and scare
immigrants in sanctuary, they said it’s had the opposite effect. They refuse to
back down and are “more committed than ever” to fighting back.
Espinal-Moreno said she
has seen recent efforts by members of Congress to draw attention to the
humanitarian crisis at the border and the conditions in Border Patrol
facilities. These actions make a difference, she said, and she’s calling on
elected officials to use their power to help families in sanctuary.
“Lots of Democrats talk
about immigration, but they really need to do something about it. They say they
support immigrants and refugees, but they need to stop saying it and do
something. Right now. We need it,” Espinal-Moreno said.
Ramirez and Espinal-Moreno
aren’t afraid to fight for their families. Both women quietly left their
sanctuary churches last summer to attend a gathering in Durham, North Carolina with
their families and other sanctuary leaders. At the event, they learned
organizing strategies and developed deportation defense campaigns. In September
2018, Ramirez left her church to participate in direct action at Rep. Will
Hurd’s (R-TX) office, where she told his staff her personal story of migration
and criminalization.
“I came to [the United
States] to flee my country and protect my son. I’m in this church to protect my
son. People say we are hiding in sanctuary, but we are not hiding. Immigration
knows where we are,” Ramirez said. “Sometimes I feel scared, but I know I have
to keep fighting. I have to keep fighting for my freedom and my son’s freedom.
I’m fighting for justice, and I’m fighting for the rights of all immigrant
people. Please be compassionate towards us. We just want our freedom and our
rights to be respected.”
This piece was reprinted by
Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without
permission or license from the source.
Tina Vasquez is an editor and award-winning writer from the Los
Angeles area. Follow her on Twitter: @TheTinaVasquez.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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