Ohio - Hispanics claim racial profiling by officers

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by stopracism

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Three times in two months, Jose Calderon and Belinda Vega were stopped by a police officer and an immigration officer in Plymouth, Ohio, and their identities questioned - each time with their two young children present and each time with no ticket or citation given.

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All of the men, women, and children were residing in northern Ohio when they were detained and questioned about their immigration status. Both Mr. Heller and Mr. Velasquez declined to say how many of the 12 listed plaintiffs are considered illegal immigrants.

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"We believe this has increased dramatically since the opening of the U.S. Border Patrol in Sandusky, Ohio," said Mark Heller, managing attorney for ABLE's Migrant Farmworker and Immigration Program. "We've seen that they are trolling through northern Ohio and are stopping Hispanics based solely on their Hispanic appearance."

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The lawsuit comes about a month after Mr. Velasquez announced that FLOC had partnered with the nonprofit Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice, which is launching an immigration services program to provide assistance to individuals living in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

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Mr. Velasquez said yesterday that he is concerned about the long-term impact that unwarranted stops will have on the Hispanic community, including the probability that Hispanics will not trust law enforcement enough to report crimes they have either experienced or witnessed.

If hispanics cannot be trusted to comply with immigration laws, why should we care whether they trust law enforcement? And furthermore, if hispanics cannot be trusted to comply with immigration laws, why should law enforcement trust the hispanic community? Why shouldn't law enforcement then be able to use appearances to police the presence of illegal aliens?

Just because I can distinguish between somebody who is Spanish and somebody who is English doesn't mean I am a racist.

I am glad to hear that law enforcement is cracking down on illegal immigrants from Hispanic countries in Ohio since these countries are the most contemptuous of our immigration laws.

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Why don't these "brown skinned" people blame the cause of their problems where it actually comes from, that being, those that are coming and staying in this country illegally. No they blame the citizens of this country. When they start to be honest and say "Yes we know why you're looking at us, because your biggest problem of illegals is those who have brown skin" then they will get my respect. But instead they cry they're victims, but not mention that this country and our social welfare system is mostly a victim of those with "brown skin" who are here illegally. No these so called "victims" don't want to be honest with 'why' they are being pointed to. They don't want to admit that our biggest problem are the "brown skinned" that are here illegally and are those here mostly from the south of us. Just that huge number of illegals being here alone points them out. When they start pointing fingers toward the south and start to speak honestly about the situation and stop acting as victims of the US, then they'll get my respect. Until then, they can just shut up or speak to the hand.

[ilbegone]

Here is the key statement:

Both Mr. Heller and Mr. Velasquez declined to say how many of the 12 listed plaintiffs are considered illegal immigrants.

When it serves the purposes of the open borders crowd, the concept of nationality is blurred by race.

However, when it's time to bash enforcement of immigration law, they would complain about "profiling".

It fairly slaps me in the face as to who is likely to be illegal and who is likely to be a citizen. There is generally a world of difference between foreign nationals and their American born children. What this article doesn't say is what are the plaintiffs doing that sets off those indicators?

One of the things I find quite disingenuous is when they yell about racial profiling and racial discrimination when the immigration officers are Hispanic and grew up in the culture.

One would certainly think they would have a good idea of who is who.