Immigration rights forum empowers Imperial County community
EL CENTRO — Los Amigos De La Comunidad, a nonprofit group, organized an immigration panel and data forum, in collaboration with different immigrant rights organizations, with the aim of empowering households to acquire authorized standing and be taught to organize for rising injustices.
The forum, held on the El Centro Public Library on Friday, April 24, included the participation of organizations that provide sources for immigrants, resembling TODEC (Training Occupational Development Educating Communities), the Consulate of Mexico and Agxibel Barajas, an lawyer primarily based in Indio.
“Our forum on immigration and citizenship is based on solidarity. When a member of our community feels unsafe or ignored, we all feel it,” mentioned Peter Martinez, co-organizer of the forum. “Offering this forum for free was an act of generosity – we are ensuring that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has a place to find answers and hope.”
Each taking part group made a presentation to attendees in regards to the sources they provide to immigrants and authorized residents; A recurring theme all through the displays was that even residents with correct documentation have been subjected to racial profiling and have had their rights violated by immigration enforcement businesses.
“The increase in immigration activities by ICE and the media coverage about it have affected our community, our families and, most worryingly, the children, who suffer the most from the consequences. This is our way of supporting that vulnerable community in these difficult times,” declared Isabel Solis, president of Los Amigos De La Comunidad.
TODEC has traditionally served the Coachella Valley and Riverside, but in addition serves your complete state of California, together with Imperial County.
Ismael Cruz, civic participation coordinator at TODEC, offered the authorized heart’s providers, which embrace free authorized help for immigration circumstances. Cruz defined that the truth that residents acquire authorized standing is an enormous step; However, the basic goal is to acquire citizenship.
“We teach them their basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution, to have a plan in case they are detained by immigration, what happens if they have children?” Cruz mentioned. “We need to have a family plan for these types of emergencies.”
TODEC not solely offers help in acquiring citizenship, but in addition helps people by providing them free authorized help in reference to the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, in an effort to make sure that they’ll proceed their research.
“We know that DACA is being debated in the Supreme Court, there are a lot of questions about what will happen, a lot of uncertainty, but at TODEC we continue to work with college students and pay their DACA renewal fees,” Cruz mentioned.
DACA, created in 2012, goals to guard from deportation younger individuals who got here to the United States undocumented earlier than 2007. However, a latest choice launched on Friday, April 24, by the Board of Immigration Appeals set a troubling precedent by establishing that being a DACA recipient just isn’t sufficient to keep away from deportation.
Cruz additionally launched a 24/7 hotline to entry free authorized recommendation for folks detained or vulnerable to being detained, in addition to for community members to report and make sure ICE actions. This emergency line serves the Coachella Valley and the Inland Empire by means of the quantity 951-388-2008.
Community activist Frances Beope spoke in regards to the authorized and human rights violations of Operation Return to Sender, an ICE operation in 2025 that resulted in mass roundups of suspected immigrants.
“A person’s race, ethnicity or occupation cannot justify a detention, nor can their refusal to answer voluntary questions,” Beope mentioned. “Operation ‘Return to Sender’ deliberately ignored these legal mandates.”
The operation focused and detained folks of shade who seemed to be farm staff, no matter their immigration standing, Beope defined. The Border Patrol reported making 78 arrests in the course of the January 2025 operation, solely one among which was an individual with a previous prison document.
“On the morning of January 8, 2025, a Border Patrol agent detained a U.S. citizen who was working as a gardener and transporting a trailer full of gardening tools. When he refused to hand over the keys to his truck to the agent who had detained him, he slashed his tires,” Beope mentioned.
“When his passenger did not immediately open the passenger side door, the officer threatened to break the window. When the passenger rolled down the window, the officer dragged him out of the vehicle.”
“As a community, we must support each other; this never ends,” Beope mentioned as she concluded her presentation. Attorney Agxibel Barajas, founding father of The Barajas Law Firm, APC, started her presentation choking again tears, moved by the community assist expressed on the forum and listening to tales in regards to the difficulties immigrants face because of intense enforcement of immigration legal guidelines.
Barajas, who has practiced legislation for 13 years, defined that the previous couple of years — marked by elevated consideration and prejudice in the direction of immigrants — have been essentially the most tough of his profession.
“I would like to tell you that the government is complying with the law, but that is not the case,” mentioned Barajas. “I would like to tell you that we have rights and that those rights will be respected; however, we just saw Frances give us a vivid example of the reality that many are living.”
See additionally
Barajas provided an in depth presentation on the assorted processes that folks can observe to acquire citizenship and their fundamental rights, in order that they know how you can work together with immigration businesses.
Barajas emphasised that folks should be ready for emergency conditions, in case they’re detained and arrested by ICE.
A very good plan to make sure the simplest authorized help within the occasion of arrest is to have all related paperwork ready and arranged upfront, together with these proving identification, permanence within the United States, in addition to any medical proof or proof of extraordinary hardship.
Barajas went on to clarify that folks must also designate a member of the family or buddy who can act shortly to find the paperwork and call an lawyer.
He additionally defined methods immigrants can decrease the explanation why they is perhaps denied a citizenship software, together with being conscious of their digital footprint.
“Assume that anything you post can be used against you at any time. Social media can cause a lot of problems, whether it affects a family member’s petition or a naturalization application,” Barajas mentioned. If you share a political meme about our president, that could possibly be interpreted as an assault on the United States authorities; That is purpose sufficient to disclaim you citizenship. Think earlier than you share. Michael Antonio Morales, one of many forum attendees, commented that he left the occasion nicely knowledgeable, noting that staying updated is a necessity for everybody, whether or not they’re full residents or people who find themselves within the technique of acquiring citizenship.
“I came with the purpose of obtaining as much information as possible, not only for my benefit, but to be able to share it with other people,” Morales mentioned. “While I may not have been able to take it all in, at least I know who I can refer others to. Hopefully, this will help someone and, you know, give us all more peace of mind—even if it’s just a little—because we now have the empowerment that comes with education.”
Solis shared that whereas many community members interacted with the net bulletins posted by the group “Los Amigos De La Comunidad” within the days main as much as the occasion, a substantial quantity selected to not attend the forum because of worry of being intercepted by immigration authorities. Although many residents have been reluctant to attend in particular person, variety of them adopted the displays and accessed the knowledge by means of a reside broadcast of the forum on Facebook.
Eric Montoya Reyes, government director of “Los Amigos De La Comunidad”, maintains the next conviction: “The strength of a community is measured by its ability to provide support to its most vulnerable sectors. This forum represents our collective effort to strengthen the immigrant community, which is currently facing uncertainty, making difficult decisions and doubt about who to trust to obtain the information and resources it needs.”