By SCOTT AUST / Greater Garden City
Margarita Gutierrez shared her first-hand experience of the recent heavy-handed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions with the Garden City Commission on Tuesday and called for treating people with basic human dignity.
“Throughout my life, I have never been a criminal. My record is clean. My devotion to this country is absolute. If you believe ICE only comes into communities to arrest undocumented immigrants with criminal records, you are mistaken. That is not the reality we witness in southwest Kansas,” she said.
Gutierrez said she was brought to this country as a child, an undocumented immigrant. Growing up, she said, she didn’t see herself as an outsider. She saw this country as her home, future and the place she wanted to protect. As a result, she stepped forward to serve in the United States Marine Corps and swore to support and defend the Constitution. During her service, Gutierrez served two combat tours in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Gutierrez said the day ICE arrived in Garden City, its agents “assaulted a 17-year-old American citizen while at work, a minor. Whatever your opinion on immigration may be, whatever political argument you want to have, this was a child and a United States citizen. A teenager should never have had to experience that kind of violence, fear, and humiliation.”
The next day, she said, she was sitting in a Walmart Parking lot when an ICE agent drove past slowly, taking pictures of her, her vehicle and license plate. After seeing she had a veteran license plate, the agent didn’t approach her.
“Think about that,” she said. “From looking at me, there was no way for him to know where I was born, no way to know my citizenship, no way to know anything about my life or my family, and there was certainly no way to know that the brown woman sitting in that car had served this country.”
For Gutierrez, and many other residents of Garden City, Finney County, and southwest Kansas who had similar experiences it’s clear the enforcement action was not only about legal status. Gutierrez said because she spoke up, she has been targeted with hatred, vulgar and sexually explicit slurs and other racist comments.
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter how many generations our families have been here. It doesn’t even matter that some of us have worn this country’s uniform. Sometimes all it takes is someone looking at us and deciding before knowing a single thing about us that we don’t belong, and that is bigger than an immigration issue,” Gutierrez said. “Someone looked at my brown skin, my name, and heard me speak up for other immigrants and decided I must be un-American. Someone told a United States Marine that they hope ICE rounds up their un-American ass.”
Gutierrez said she doesn’t know how someone can hear those experiences and still think immigration status is the only issue.
“An immigrant can come to this country, make it home, love it, contribute to it, raise a family in it, and be willing to die defending it, yet still have someone look at the color of their skin and decide they don’t belong,” she said.
People ought to be treated with basic human dignity even when disagreeing about policy. Conversations about immigration laws can be had but racism should not become acceptable.
“No one should have to prove where they were born or how much they sacrificed before we decide they’re worthy of compassion, dignity, and respect,” she said.
People who use racist slurs designed to strip people of their humanity are not proving their patriotism, they are proving why the conversation has become biggen than immigration she said.
“Patriotism is love for your country. Dehumanizing people because of where they come from, what they look like, and who they are has another name, and no amount of red, white, and blue can disguise it,” Gutierrez said.
Since ICE’s actions, many residents have spoken out on social media and appeared at both Garden City and Finney County commission meetings expressing dissatisfaction with local officials’ response to it and asking for more information.
During Tuesday’s Garden City Commission meeting, City Manager Matt Allen provided an update following public comments expressed during the City’s Sept. 29 town hall meeting where five residents asked questions about federal immigration operations.
As of Sept. 29, Allen said, City staff were told that between 104 and 107 arrests were made throughout southwest Kansas during the operations that took place from Tuesday, September 22 through Thursday, September 24.
Allen said staff have been working with the federal Congressional delegation to try and get more clarity regarding the arrests that were made and to share the impacts of the operation.
Allen said internally, City staff have scheduled a debrief to identify lessons learned and opportunities for improvement. Externally, Allen said, the City is in the process of scheduling a joint Cultural Relations Board and Public Safety Advisory Board meeting to expand the discussion more broadly to community members that are tasked with providing recommendations to the City Commission on items related to cultural awareness and public safety.
Those recommendations will be brought before the city commission at a future meeting, he said.
Several community members have asked about expanding educational efforts surrounding cultural competencies and the form of government under which the municipal corporation operates. Allen said those topics will be included in the joint advisory board meeting previously mentioned.
Finney County also responded to recent events. On Monday, Finney County Commission Chair Vicki Germann acknowledged residents have questions, concerns and a very real sense of fear. She said the federal immigration enforcement activity took place “unexpectedly, without advance communication with local officials or an opportunity for the usual practice of deconfliction that ensures coordination and public safety.”
Germann said local leaders do not have operational authority over federal enforcement activities, but they can — and will — ask questions, seek information and advocate for the safety and protection of the community and local law enforcement officers.
Germann said the County is seeking answers about what occurred, why no advance notice was provided, and how communication and coordination can be improved going forward. Local officials will also meet with state and federal representatives to share concerns heard from residents and make sure they are part of those conversations.
“We also recognize that our community needs an opportunity to be heard. Public comments are an important part of our process, and we want to hear from you. We encourage you, as our community members, to share your experiences and tell us how these recent events have affected you and your family,” Germann said.
Germann said residents of Finney County have always embraced the culture and diversity of the people who make this community what it is.
“In moments of uncertainty, we may not all have the same perspective or the same answers, but we can all stand together in our commitment to one another, to open communication, to the safety and well-being of our residents, and to ensure that every member of our community knows that they are seen and heard, and that their concerns matter to us,” she said.
On Tuesday, the City Commission took the additional step by authorizing a letter, as recommended by the Cultural Relations Board, to be sent to Sen. Jerry Moran, Sen. Roger Marshall and Rep. Tracey Mann outlining the City of Garden City’s existing legislative platform regarding immigration and asking for answers to questions raised by people in the community regarding recent ICE activity in southwest Kansas.
The letter notes the City has consistently advocated for many years to locate a permanent naturalization services office in Garden City and southwest Kansas. The City’s current legislative platform states immigrant and refugee labor is vital to the region’s economy, that Garden City supports legal immigration and calls for the Kansas Legislature and United States Congress to sensibly approach the immigration issue.
The City’s platform also states:
“For Garden City, a sensible approach is an approach built on three essential foundations: 1) all immigration legislation is tempered with an understanding of such legislation’s economic impact for companies employing immigrants; 2) a recognition that immigrants living in Garden City require a reduction in time and distance barriers between the individual and his or her pursuance of legal status; and 3) a recognition that Garden City requires additional resources to integrate immigrants into the community.
In addition, Garden City requests that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) give serious consideration to opening a field office in Southwest Kansas where services are desperately needed.
To help address this issue in the meantime, we request an increase in the frequency of USCIS mobile services in Southwest Kansas as follows:
– Provide at least monthly mobile services in Southwest Kansas;
– Provide full services (biometrics, interviews, etc.) during each visit;
– SKC member cities will continue to provide support staff, designated space (rent-free), and technology; and
– Increased frequency of naturalization ceremonies.
Lastly, Garden City strongly believes that the United States Congress should engage to deliver bipartisan legislation that provides a permanent solution for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Such legislation should include a pathway to citizenship within a reasonable timeframe.”
The letter also includes written questions submitted by Garden City resident Kent Williams and read during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting that seeks information about the recent federal action concerning the number of residents detained, released, the basis for stopping individuals, and whether any stops were initiated primarily on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, workplace, neighborhood or perceived immigration status.
Additional questions concerned how many families were separated, how many children were left without a primary caregiver, how many entered foster care or other emergency placement, whether any deaths occurred in federal immigration detention including any due to inadequate or delayed medical care.
The letter also asks whether DHS plans to build a local office in Garden City and whether the services being brought will be limited to immigration enforcement while providing no naturalization services. The letter strongly recommends that any DHS facility operating in southwest Kansas includes the full range of naturalization process services.
“We ask our delegation to provide us with a response as to whether a DHS office is opening in Southwest Kansas and, if so, the nature of the services and operations that it will house,” the letter states. “Finally, the attached questions were provided in advance to be read into public comment at today’s City Commission meeting. We ask that you provide a response to those that relate to the federal government as well and we will share those as part of a future City Commission meeting.”
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