Community Rallies, sends message to ICE

Francisco Dominguez has had a tumultuous couple of weeks.

The former Mt. Hood student, 25, was arrested on Sunday, March 26, by federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his home. He was subsequently detained in Tacoma, Washington, at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, though the agents in question did not have a warrant for his arrest.

Francisco is one of many undocumented people protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act, an executive order put into place by former President Barack Obama.

DACA is a voluntary program which allows the children of people who emigrated to America illegally to work legally and get a driver’s license, and promises a suspension for deportation.

Almost “immediately after his arrest, we got a call,” says Andrea Williams, executive director of Causa,  a group that calls itself “Oregon’s Latino immigrant rights organization.” She said, “We started to figure out what to do, (how) to take action and we spent most of Sunday morning trying to figure out how (could) we get him out of Tacoma?”

Williams said that together with the ACLU and Latino Network, Dominguez’s current employer, Causa put out a “call to action asking community members to call ICE and demand for his release. And then attorneys stepped in, and the media came in and then, lo and behold, (he) was released!”

Dominguez was arrested regarding a DUI misdemeanor charge he received last year. While being convicted of a crime disqualifies a person for DACA eligibility, he had entered a diversion program whose completion would restore that eligibility.

A rally at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Rockwood (Gresham) on March 27, originally planned to be such a call to action, instead was transformed into a welcome home party for Dominguez.

Among the speakers was Jared Hoffman, an Active Children Portland co-worker who emphasized the impact the arrest had on him. “To hear about someone who just gives so much back to those in need, to hear that their door got knocked in on Sunday… when we woke up on Monday we were very, very upset,” he said.

A Latino Network co-worker, Carmen Rubio, decried the tactics used by ICE, specifically regarding their agents’ lack of a warrant: “We are living in a time when justice as we know it is under assault. Our civil rights in our immigrant communities are under assault… across the country,” she said.

Citing her personal experiences as his supervisor Rubio said that, as far as she knew, “all his life Francisco played by the rules. As a so-called “DREAMer” student, he registered with the federal government through DACA in 2013 under the promise that disclosing his information provided him legal status to live and work in this country.

Now, “that very information is currently being used to target and detain contributing and law-abiding members of the community,” Rubio said.

Dominguez himself closed out the rally with a brief speech in which he thanked “everyone that took the time out of their day to join us here.

“It’s been a rough week and I just want to thank the community and everyone who had my back and was showing their support for me. We’ve shown that as a community, if we come together, we can accomplish anything,” he said.

Padre (Father) Roberto Maldonado informed those in attendance that citizenship classes would be held at the church Holy Cross/Santa Cruz at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, on Saturday, April 15.