Maryland immigration advocates condemn ICE, detail recent Baltimore arrests
Immigration advocacy group CASA commanded a show of force against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Baltimore on Wednesday.
Hundreds of demonstrators in Baltimore protested the recent federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
According to CASA leaders, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have targeted "people who have been violently abducted while carrying out essential family tasks like grocery shopping and job hunting."
CASA said there have been at least 16 immigration arrests in Baltimore City and Baltimore County since May 20, when five people were arrested near the Home Depot on Eastern Avenue.
"This is our community, and we say loud and clear to ICE, get out of here. You're not welcome here," said Crisaly De Los Santos, CASA's Baltimore and Central Maryland director. "We want ICE out of Baltimore, and we want ICE out of Maryland."
The Baltimore protest
Demonstrators started at the CASA Baltimore headquarters on Pulaski Highway before stopping at a Royal Farms gas station and Hazlo grocery store, where they said ICE has taken people into custody.
"It's absolutely outrageous what has happened to our immigrant communities," said one demonstrator.
Several chanted "Shame!"
The protest was peaceful.
"It has been great seeing all the energy and people out here," said protester John Sanick. "Our country and our communities were built on immigrants, and they are our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members, so it's important to see all these people out here supporting this to get ICE out of Baltimore City and the County."
"It has been a great energy seeing people we know out here, and knowing that people in Baltimore City and the surrounding communities are here to stand up for immigrant communities, documented and undocumented," said protester Elijah Sharp. "It's been really encouraging just to see the showing out here."
The Baltimore demonstration was one of many across the country, with protestors sending a message that there is power in their numbers.
"People are not illegal. People are people. They are Americans looking for safety, looking for a place to run from terrorism and fear, and they're coming here," said protester Patrick Smith. "There's great power in the numbers. Stand up, be heard and fight back because no one is going to do it for us clearly."
Feds not backing down
The Trump administration has argued that they are enforcing the law.
"l said from day one, the president wants to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats, but I also said, if you're in the country illegally, you're not off the table," Trump administration "Border Czar" Tom Homan told CBS Evening News this week.
"When they opened up our borders for the whole world to come in, yeah, we're going to get them out. We're getting them out," President Trump said, blaming his predecessor.
One man observing the protest told WJZ he feared it would make ICE target Maryland more extensively.
"This is not going to help," he said. "This is only going to make them come worse. I have friends who have been taken off the streets here. ICE is only going to come harder after this. I believe this is the right mindset, but you don't do it this way. This is going to make them angry."
Councilmember Ramos pushes back
Baltimore's first Latina councilmember, Odette Ramos, joined the front of Wednesday's Baltimore march. She has been outspoken in condemning the ICE actions.
"I am angry. We all should be angry that our neighbors are being treated so inhumanely only because they are not from here," Ramos told the crowd. "And if they are coming for them, they are coming for us."
Ramos also fought to increase the city's immigrant services budget to include more funds for legal assistance.
"I'm very upset. I'm trying to hold this together. I take this very personally," the councilwoman said. "I am Puerto Rican, but I'm Latina, and I want to protect all Latinos and all immigrants and all community members in our city."
CASA details arrests
CASA provided a recent list of ICE activity in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, beginning with the May 20 arrests outside the Home Depot.
The organization said there were three more arrests there on May 25.
There was another man taken into custody at a 7-11 on Eastern Avenue the same day.
On June 5, CASA said immigration officers detained a man at a Baltimore County shopping center and an auto repair shop along Route 40.
The organization said ICE was observed at the Hazlo grocery store on June 6 and June 7.
CASA described a June 8 incident in Baltimore where ICE took a man into custody. They said he was arrested in a volatile encounter with agents while his wife, three children, and 80-year-old mother watched.
CASA also said on June 10, ICE took a man into custody at a grocery store on Seven Mile Lane.
The organization urged people to call their ICE hotline at 1-888-214-6016 "to report ICE activity and for families to receive emergency support after an ICE encounter.
