Welcome back! After writing our blog post on Tuesday, Scout and I heard the news about a massive ICE raid on an Ohio meat processing company, Fresh Mark. Nearly 150 employees were taken from the Salem, OH Freshmark branch and search warrants were served at the Canton and Massillon branches. The search warrants allowed ICE officers to access information about the employees at the Canton and Massillon branches, so while ICE did not detain anyone at those locations, ICE may now have access to employee information and will likely screen employees for fake work documents. The initial investigation into Fresh Mark was a result of the company’s participation in the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program. Several employees were believed to be using fake work documents and many will be given criminal charges for identity theft and fraud. ICE officers and some of the 146 workers during the raid This raid came about two weeks after another large raid in Sandusky at Corso’s Flower and Garden Center. Similar to the Corso’s raid, several detainees have been wrongfully arrested despite proper documentation and work permits. While the raid took place on Tuesday in the early afternoon, many wrongfully detained workers were released late into the night at the Brooklyn Heights ICE office. Additionally, several people were released with humanitarian concerns, such as a woman seven months into her pregnancy. While many parents were released, there are still several families and children that are separated from detained parents and living without either parent, sometimes in the custody of family and friends. Tuesday night we were at First Christian Church with many of these families that had been torn apart by the raids, including a young girl who had a parent deported six months ago and the other parent detained that day. Many of the families still do not know the condition of their detained loved ones and the Immigrant Worker Project has been receiving countless phone calls to help locate those arrested in the raid. The ICE office where many of the workers were detained. Some of our coworkers awaiting the release of the detained migrants. The Immigrant Worker Project held three Know-Your-Rights community meetings to respond to community concerns in Salem, Canton, and Massillon. Scout and I helped organize two of these, and each meeting had remarkable turnout, with over 120 present in Massillon. In each meeting, the program director Jeff Stewart explained what had happened in the raid, what IWP knows about those detained in the raids, and how to prepare for an ICE raid or police stop in the future. IWP staff took questions and met individually with those affected by the raid to assess needs and provide free legal advice. One of the employees that I spoke with said that Freshmark had encouraged him to apply to work even with fake documents. Another woman described how she told her boss that she was using a fake social security number, and that her boss told her it would be okay as long as she kept working. While it remains unclear whether ICE will press charges on Fresh Mark itself, it it appears that the company was complicit in or even encouraged some employees to work with fake documents. Fresh Mark continues to profit from the labor of vulnerable workers while facing relatively little backlash for improper hiring practices. For the immigrants work at Fresh Mark, there is rarely alternative employment that will allow them to support themselves and their families. One man described being able to find work in Guatemala, but not enough to provide for his wife and three children. Now the whole family lives in the United States and Fresh Mark was one of the few places the parents were able to find consistent work - they will have to find work elsewhere, likely for a farm. Many of the farms in the area are underemployed and do not have the workforce to produce their normal yearly harvests, so there are several jobs available in the lettuce and dill fields of northern Ohio. For now, he and his wife are out of work and have no source of income to provide for themselves and their children. The effects of the raid go beyond those directly affected by it, as Latino immigrants across northern Ohio are expressing their fear of upcoming raids either at their place of work or in their homes. I spoke with one man who said he had not left his house for 36 hours following the raid because he was afraid that ICE might start going door-to-door in his neighborhood. Jeff Stewart, IWP director, speaking with some of the Massillon immigrant community impacted by the raids. Despite the recent terror and suffering that has been brought upon the Latino immigrant community, there have been countless moments of hope that have demonstrated the strength and unity of the whole community. The Immigrant Worker Project staff has been working tirelessly to identify and represent those affected by the raid. On the night of the raid, dozens of volunteers gathered at First Christian Church to take care of children whose parents had been detained and to gather supplies for families in need of assistance. Countless community members have pledged their support both materially and through volunteering for the families that were affected by the raid, and over 200 members of the immigrant community attended our KYR meetings on Wednesday. And of course, those affected by the raid have remained resilient in spite of family separation, financial instability, and fears over their own safety.
For now, there are several ways that volunteers and donors can get involved in working to support the families of the detained: Donate to the Immigrant Worker Project in Canton to help identify those detained, provide social services and temporary support for families, and provide free legal assistance: https://www.facebook.com/donate/413083432500957/ Donate money or supplies for families to St. Paul Church in Salem - St. Paul is collecting money and supplies for the families of workers detained in the Salem Fresh Mark raid. Contact the church directly for more information - (330) 332-0336 Donates diapers, food, and other supplies to Lifesong Church in Massillon to support the families out of work at the Massillon Fresh Mark. Call the church directly - (330) 880-0211
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