On Feb. 25, over 20 activists and community members gathered at La Casita, a Latino cultural center in Syracuse’s Near West Side neighborhood, to discuss the increase of racist attacks on the immigrant community and the growing collaboration between the Syracuse Police Department, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to local policy, the police are not supposed to inquire into the immigration status of residents. However, it is becoming apparent that the police are using minor offenses as an excuse to aid ICE in their policy of racist deportations. While this has been routine for police operating in the suburbs of Syracuse, it is increasingly affecting inner-city Latino communities as well.
Priscilla Santana, a resident of the Near West Side, told her story. Dealing with the day-to-day struggles of the capitalist system, Priscilla asked a friend to drop her off at work and bring her car into the shop for maintenance. Just two blocks away from her house, the police pulled Santana and her friend over for the “crime” of a noisy muffler.
The officers took this incident as an opportunity to mock Santana and her friend while they aggressively searched her car. The police demanded that Santana’s friend present his driver’s license or another form of identification. While Santana had bills at home in her friend’s name that affirmed his identity, he was undocumented and therefore did not have any legal form of identification. The police then called ICE and Santana’s friend is currently serving three months in jail, after which he will be deported. This is just one example where everyday existence is criminalized, highlighting the struggles of the Latino community in Syracuse and around the country.
Another member of the community told of an encounter with the police and ICE. One day, he and a coworker were harassed by the police at work and told, “You are in a country that’s not yours, you are here like thieves.” ICE was called and the two workers were forced to wait outside in the cold for three hours until they were taken to jail. Their only crime was working.
The community member informed the group that he was freed because his family was able to post bail. The workers’ boss took this incident as an opportunity to avoid paying his workers for two weeks of labor. The Workers’ Center of Central New York is currently struggling to rightfully obtain the wages from the employer.
A Latina union organizer present at the meeting remarked that this policy not only attacks undocumented families but documented people of color as well. She explained that while she is a U.S. citizen because she is Puerto Rican, the police routinely question her immigration status and are oftentimes ignorant of the fact that all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens due to the colonial occupation of the island by the United States. This reflects the level of racism and ignorance that runs rampant throughout the Syracuse Police Department.
The cooperation between the police and ICE has created a situation where community members are unlikely to report crimes, which is especially problematic in the cases of domestic abuse and violence. As Santana told the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) in an interview, “People are scared to call the police if something happens to them, because they have the ability to turn things around—and probably the person that is hurt will end up in jail.” (SyracuseAnswer.org, Feb. 25)
These racist attacks serve to further divide working people and manipulate the opinions of the anti-immigrant segment of society. As Rebecca Fuentes, the Director of the Workers’ Center, said, “We are in need of immigration reform because the way the system is working now, it’s criminalizing immigrants.”
While documented and non-documented immigrant workers often toil under unfair conditions with little pay, they are portrayed in the media as freeloaders and a burden on taxpayers. Even though all immigrants pay taxes directly or indirectly to employers, landlords and commercial outlets, undocumented immigrants have few labor protections and their status is exploited by the capitalist class who view them as nothing more than a “flexible” and cheap source of labor.
All progressive people should reject the racist cooperation between local police and immigration officials. Minor traffic offenses should be dealt with by issuing a ticket, not used as excuses to deport working people. We need to fight for a world where it would be unthinkable to separate families and destroy lives based on racist laws and imaginary lines. No more racist deportations! An injury to one is an injury to all!
To get involved in this struggle, contact [email protected].
