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.