At first, Jessica Cavazos, president and CEO of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County, Wisconsin focused on the broader Latino picture, rather than just immigration. She spoke a lot about the economic standpoint, and how the Latino community is an active contributor to the U.S. economy.
“We really need a pathway to legalization and citizenship that we don’t have,” she said. “It’s unfortunate right now that I think we’re at a standstill.”
She also reiterated many times how important the Latino community was to the economy, and how there are so many young, undocumented students who are looking to become a part of society in a positive way but are held back by the restrictions on citizenship. However, she also spoke on a different perspective, “…immigrant communities continue to grow, and their children are first generation Americans, who are also living in fear even though they have birthright and are a part of this country.” She also said, “Living in fear is a huge issue when you’re trying to progress and be a contributing part of our society.”
When asked specifically about the ICE situation, Cavazos said, “I think that here, locally, we heard about the raids. But were they really raids or are people living in such fear and are in the shadows that anything scares them at this point? I guess right now, we just have to figure out how to create a sustainable community and it’s not happening with the current legislation. I think we’re creating a criminalization of immigrant communities that really do not contribute readily to our state’s economy and our nation’s economy.” Again, she touched on the economic standpoint of the issue. She spoke on the abuses that occur to immigrant communities within the workforce because there is the fear of being undocumented and deported. She also spoke on the dairy industry in Wisconsin, and the role that Latinos play within that industry.
“The best way to say it is, right now, there is a witch hunt after the wrong people.” She based much of her information off of the press releases that came directly from ICE. She said that there were 83 people in the state of Wisconsin who were arrested, and most of them had a criminal background.
“They did say that they did gather, I think it was, 12 individuals that had no criminal background but did not have status or were undocumented,” she added. What was interesting was that she was not quick to call these raids, because she defines a raid as something bigger than just one person at a time. She did see some issue with ICE not telling any local authorities about the raids. Here she describes what she’s heard and what she understands about what happened: “From what I understand is that ICE came into the community. That ICE did not forewarn local law enforcement. That ICE went into communities and targeted different residences and they took in, I think it was, I don’t recall the total number they arrested, but they took in Madison, but I think it was about 12 just from the Madison area. The majority of them had some form of criminal background, but they did arrest three people who did not have any criminal background.”
One of the main points she kept circling back to was the fear that these “raids” instilled in communities. She said that businesses closed, people skipped work, and just stayed as quiet and under the radar as they could during those three days.
“Communities were paralyzed because they were living in fear.” She also added that people getting information from social media added to the increased fear, and that she wished there were one or two credible sources to disseminate information so that it was more streamlined and not so frenzied, because “it created fear mongering.”
As for whether or not she thinks the ICE press releases are credible, she said “I would hope that our U.S. government and Homeland Security would provide us with accurate information, of course.” She also said that the effect these raids had on the communities is pretty big because even if it’s one person, it still affects the whole community. She said that “There were children that weren’t picked up by their parents because they were victims of the raids.”
Her final thought was about moving forward and not letting any of this hinder the progress that Latinos continue to make, “Latinos will continue to grow. We are an important factor in America’s workforce and I think it’s really important for us to be organized. And no matter what partisan lines you belong to, that we keep a united front.”