The message inside a library meeting room in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood on Wednesday night was simple: It can happen here – so what are we going to do when it does?
“It” is the largely unchecked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis and cities throughout the country.
Akron has not yet been targeted by widespread ICE action like what’s been seen in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Portland, Maine, among other U.S. cities. But the Akron-area residents in the room wanted to be prepared for when ICE sets its sights here.
The roughly 120 people packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a North Hill Branch Library meeting room discussed and debated how to build trust with and look after their immigrant neighbors whose lives may soon be upended.
“I am disheartened over what I see happening,” said “Al” in an interview with Signal Akron — North Hill, where the library is located, is home to many of the city’s immigrants. (Al declined to provide their full name for fear of retribution from the government.) “It saddens me to my core, it makes my heart bleed and it’s just unacceptable.”
ICE agents are expected to descend on Springfield, Ohio, to target the Haitian-born residents who have been living legally in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status visas because of rampant violence and political instability in their home country. TPS will end on Feb. 3.
“They are going to come after Haitians in our community here and now [too],” said one organizer for the Akron branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, projecting loudly to the whole room after small group discussions. “Be extra careful, keep your eyes out for your Black neighbors.”
Akron City Council Member Fran Wilson emphasized that council can’t make rules to force the Akron Police Department to not coordinate with ICE unless voters pass a charter amendment, but they said that the mayor has the power to designate what the police can and cannot do. Wilson encouraged people to contact the Akron mayor’s office.
Organizers and attendees discussed how people with different personalities — deemed “archetypes” like “caregiver,” “frontline responder,” and “ambassador,” among others — can utilize their skills to stick up for their immigrant neighbors when agents come.
That could include monitoring open-source information online. Others can relay street-level reports to communicate ICE sightings elsewhere. Some can deliver groceries to families too afraid to leave their homes. Others can write, translate, and publish multi-lingual resource guides to things like pro-bono legal services. Some can take time to learn other languages.
“I have health issues, so I don’t consider myself, maybe, as a frontline person,” “Em” said in an interview with Signal Akron about how she feels she connects with the effort. She declined to give her full name out of fear of government retribution. “I am an organizer, and I like to be the person who helps connect people. I see a lot of benefit in a dispatch type role, to be the link between people.”
Em, who became politically active in 2016 (“I turned 18 and walked into a different world”), was encouraged by the completely full room.
“This is one library, one meeting, one day,” she said. “I love thinking about who else is talking everywhere else to consider the power in that. It might not look like enough people for change, but when you consider who else is doing this and multiply that across the whole country, this is where we can really remember where our power comes from.”