Clark County residents challenge Sheriff's office on "Secure Communities"

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As part of our Stop ICE's InSecure Communities campaign, OneAmerica has been working with communities across the state to educate the public about the controversial "Secure Communities" program and demand that elected leaders and law enforcement seek out public input on the program before signing up.

After finding out in a recent Columbian article that the Clark County Sheriff’s Office had applied to join "Secure Communities," OneAmerica and its leaders in Vancouver quickly sent Sheriff Garry E. Lucas a letter asking to meet and discuss the program. Community members wanted to highlight the hidden costs of this federal program, as well as express concern of the detrimental impact that “Secure Communities” and other ICE collaboration programs have on trust between local law enforcement, local governments, and immigrant communities.

After several days with no response from the Sheriff or County Commissioners, OneAmerica Vancouver Community Base Group leaders called to invite Sheriff Lucas to attend a public forum where these concerns could be discussed. Sheriff Lucas eventually called Rick Covington, one of our leaders, that he would not meet with the community and that ”Secure Communities" was a done deal with no further discussion necessary.

However, leaders went ahead with planning the forum - reaching out through radio, local magazines, and phone trees to invite the community - until one of our leaders received an email saying the Sheriff would send an outreach Sergeant who spoke Spanish if the forum was still happening.

On October 28, more than 250 community members showed up and registered at our public forum!

The event started with a presentation by Sergeant Sean Gardner from the Sheriff’s office, who kindly explained his background and deep respect for the Latino community in Spanish, but admited that he had just learned about the "Secure Communities" program three days prior to the forum and that if he did not have answers he would make sure to get them from the right source.

The crowd was very pleased to hear that even though the line for questions was long, Sergeant Gardner said he would not leave until he had heard all the questions.

Here are some of the questions participants asked:

• "What is the timeline and process for moving forward with 'Secure Communities'? What groups in the community, like the public, local elected officials, local organizations, etc, were involved in the decision to implement 'Secure Communities'? Why wasn’t I informed of these meetings? I would have been there," asked a retired librarian.
• “Are you aware of how the County’s policy regarding voluntary detainer requests is being implemented? Because based on my experience, even though it says that you are not supposed to hold detainees for ICE more than 48 hours, I have had clients detained for more than 2 weeks. This does not give me hope that 'Secure Communities' will be well implemented,” said local immigration lawyer.
• "How are you going to make sure we are not deporting hardworking members of this community instead of criminals?” asked a U.S. citizen mother of 1 1/2-year-old twins, whose husband had been arrested and deported 10 months ago for having an expire drivers license.
• “I ‘d like to know how different is this program than the one in Mount Vernon? Does the Sheriff know that in Mount Vernon, the Sheriff there put a hold on the program after meeting with community members like at this event?” asked a community member.

In his reply, Sergeant Gardner said that Sheriff Lucas has been a great leader in this community for 22 years and that he may have thought he had consulted the community, but Gardner said it is obvious to him that they should  set up a time to meet with - maybe not everyone - but with, at least, the leadership of OneAmerica Vancouver.

Gardner ensured the capacity crowd that "It is in my hands now" and that he will make sure that the leadership of OneAmerica Vancouver gets a proper meeting with the Sheriff to discuss why he voluntarily applied for "Secure Communities" even though he could have waited until mandatory compliance in 2013, plus discuss other community issues.

Our youth leader asked him, "Officer, can you promise that you won't personally deport any victims calling 911?" "I can’t promise that others won’t," Gardner replied, "but I will do my best to become an ally to your community."

The OneAmerica Vancouver Base group has proven once again that their incredible capacity to mobilize the community - and not taking a "no" for an answer - can effetively bring the voice and concerns of regular people to decision makers. We will continue building bridges and finding allies that will help us work toward the goal for all us: Justice!

BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

To Join a OneAmerica Community Base group, start your own, or find out more information about how to work collaboratively with one near you, please contact Elsa Batres Boni at elsa@weareoneamerica.org