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Deportations, dehumanizing language leave injured, fearful immigrants

Deportations, dehumanizing language leave injured, fearful immigrants

Sakege013 mins

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Patricia Ruiz-Cantu talks about the mother whose teenage son begged him not to buy because he was terrified that immigration agents could pick her up. With his shopping list in his hand, the boy took an uber to buy in his name.

Then there is the Lutheran pastor, a native of El Salvador and now an American citizen, who has begun to take his American passport wherever he goes: to work, to visits to the hospital, to the places where it is rumored that the immigration raids They have happened.

All in the Latin community seem to have stories like this.

In the days elapsed since the Trump administration Highly publicized immigration repression It began, the facts and fiction are mixed without problems in a harmful stew of fear and anxiety that immigrants’ defenders fight to stop.

Caroline Gómez-Tom, a county supervisor that represents a Latin major quotes. He has also heard that some parents are not registering their children American citizens for Badgercare Plus or other health coverage.

Health browsers, who help people register in health coverage, told customers a list of questions to determine eligibility for health insurance programs, including a question about the state of immigration. Navigators emphasize that information is only to determine eligibility, but some customers have hung at that time.

“People don’t know who to trust, they don’t know where to ask questions,” Gómez-Tom said. “What that ends is doing is away from people, and that makes our entire community less safe.”

Further: Annoying for the possibility that the ice arrives at the churches, Wisconsin’s clergy prepares, sharing information

False information exacerbates the problem

A Telemundo report from a Puerto Rican family that agents to speak Spanish in a store in Milwaukee has not been testedAnd the ice called him “completely false”, but went viral, however and made Latinos, regardless of his terrified legal status that they could be swept into an operation.

A letter Apparently from the Milwaukee Police Association, it circulated online urging people to become neighbors who live in the United States illegally. The association had to present online alerts that said it was false.

A new Berlin man He was accused of About going through a border patrol agent, which would appear in traffic, stop using false documents and clothing.

“People do not realize the psychological and emotional trauma they are creating” when they invent rumors, Ruiz-Cantu said.

Your mantra to combat false information is “Education, Education and Education.” He works mainly with evangelical and Catholic churches in the Milwaukee area through his organization, “Renace” (which means: Renaissance). She shares precise information about the flickering of legal landscape for immigrants.

Even before Trump assumed the position, Ruiz-Cantu was helping the leaders of the Latin Church to create security plans. One of those plans: the congregants who are American citizens will stop at their church entries during services to welcome members, and to be attentive to any stranger who tries to get access.

The Reverend Edwin Aparicio, a Lutheran pastor, has been receiving calls from worried parishioners about immigrant raids. He directs the Latin ministries for the Lutheran Evangelical Church in the United States Milwaukee Synod. When you receive a call, it leads to the location to see if you can find evidence. Until now, he has found nothing. But he knows what could happen.

“Reduce your anxiety and keep working,” he tells the parishioners. “And if you listen to any rumor, just call me.”

Aparicio is the minister who takes his passport at all times because he worries that he can be the target of ICE agents simply for being Latin. He has also been keeping other shepherds of the Latin Elca, and has organized the knowledge sessions of his rights.

“We pray with them, but first we listen to them,” he said, referring to immigrants. “We listen to your fight.”

Further: Whitewater is again in the immigration center, the deportation focus

The crowd meets to learn what to do if it is questioned

Under President Donald Trump, the application of immigration and customs of the United States has arrested as many as 1,000 people in one day, compared to an average of 312 people daily during the Biden administration. And although it seems that incursions have not occurred throughout the community in Milwaukee since Trump assumed the position, ICE has been highlighting its operations In big cities like Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Denver and Miami.

Ruiz-Cantu recently helped organize an informative session at the Mitchell Street branch of the Milwaukee Public Library with the Milwaukee Police and Fire Departments, the Mexican Consulate and an immigration lawyer. At least 200 people appeared, he said. City officials said immigrants should not be afraid to call them in emergencies. She plans to play a recording of that session in several churches in the area.

Around 40 people, some with their young children, packed again in a room in the library last week to learn what to do if they or their loved ones are approached by ICE or the police at home, work, school or while driving .

The lawyer Melissa Soberalski, of the Soberalski Immigration Law based in West Allis, encouraged families to consult with a trusted and accredited immigration lawyer, create a preparation plan for their family and know the rights they have independently of their status.

“Even if you are a person who is at risk, there is a (legal) process, it will not only be deported,” Soralski told the crowd in English, with Araceli Zendejas, executive administrator of the firm, translating his advice. in Spanish.

The law firm maintains the advice of “knowing your rights” on its website in English and SpanishAnd organized the event with Muskego Way Forward, an organization of the South Side neighborhood that connects residents with resources.

Further: As deportation progresses, this is how families with undocumented immigrants must prepare

Priest says that demonizing immigrants tears in the sense of the community

Next to generalized fear there is a feeling of pain. The rhetoric that represents immigrants as criminals has been harmful to many members of the community, the members of the clergy told Sentinel magazine.

“Many of the industries in which we work depend completely on immigrant work,” Aparicio said. “And the fact that many people hate us, enough to be willing to damage the economy just because they don’t like Latinos, it is a very terrible feeling.”

Reverend Aaron Pierre, a Jesuit priest who directs Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Catholic Churches of St. Patrick on the southern side of Milwaukee, said that people are “at the limit of uncertainty”, and some feel that the impulse of the Application disagrees with its Catholic faith, which emphasizes the welcome to the stranger, he said. Now, mainly Latin, the parishes were founded in the nineteenth century by Irish and German immigrants.

“Crossing Borders does not erase human dignity,” Pierre said in an email. “Everyone deserves respect and compassion, no matter where you come from. Demonizing immigrants is not only harmful, it is tear in the heart of our entire community.”

While Ruiz-Cantu listens to history after the history of community members about the ways in which his daily life has changed, he wants to remain as optimistic as he can. She knows that many of the people she knows rely on her faith for comfort.

“They are worried and worried, but they have hope, and faith is what keeps them moving,” he said. “We know that God will protect us regardless of the situation.”

Gina Lee Castro, of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff, contributed to this report.

Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter reporting about religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact it in [email protected] or 920-323-5758.

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