"Yesenia Campos was only a few months into volunteering with the network when she was detained by ICE on Oct. 30 while observing agents in San Jose. Campos said she was collecting contact information for people being detained so their families could be notified when an agent ordered her to step back. When she did not move quickly enough, she said, the agent detained her. Other volunteers were present and documented the encounter."
"As responders, we know that there's a risk, Campos said at a news conference Thursday. We know that we may potentially confront ICE. Now we know that they are unpredictable. We know that some of them are untrained, so we don't know how they're going to react in our presence. Campos and her colleagues stress that their role is strictly observational never to interfere."
The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, has heightened fears among Bay Area legal observers and immigrant-rights advocates. Members of the Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network operate a hotline for reports of ICE activity and connect residents with legal and community support. A volunteer, Yesenia Campos, was detained by ICE on Oct. 30 while observing agents in San Jose after collecting contact information for people being detained. Volunteers document encounters to notify families. Observers emphasize strictly observational roles and never interfere. Legal observing is broadly defined and the right to observe and record law enforcement activity in public is constitutionally protected, though no formal certification exists for observers.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]