{"id":15970,"date":"2025-05-08T16:38:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15970"},"modified":"2025-05-08T16:38:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:38:03","slug":"when-they-come-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/when-they-come-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"When They Come for You"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rev. D.L. Perryman, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n

\u00a0The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 C\u00e9sar Chavez<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The familiar refrain, “What you gonna do when they come for you?” once served as the backdrop to a television portrayal of justice. This representation of our justice system glorified law enforcement while casting Black, Brown and poor communities as threats or \u201cBad Boys\u201d without dignity or due process.<\/p>\n

But for millions of Black and Brown communities today, terrorized by the constant fear of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency’s (ICE) “snatch and grab” actions resulting from President Trump’s stepped-up immigration enforcement crackdown, this familiar warning has become a daily calculation.<\/p>\n

Despite recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that migrants are entitled to judicial review, President Donald Trump continues an escalating pressure campaign against judges and the U.S. court system, arguing that migrants should not receive due process before being deported.<\/p>\n

As civil rights erode, for migrants and other immigrants, “Come for you” represents sudden disappearance, detention and deportation, possibly without having the right to a day in court.<\/p>\n

Most powerfully, this haunting melody is a soundtrack to lives lived under a constant cloud of fear, where people must navigate an existence where going to work, dropping a child off at school or walking down the street is perilous.<\/p>\n

I sat down with Baldemar Vel\u00e1squez, founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), immigrant and worker rights champion, labor activist who was named a MacArthur Fellow (also known as the \u201cGenius Grant\u201d) in 1989, \u00a0to talk about what hope and action must occur in such times.<\/p>\n

Perryman: Someone has described you as \u201cC\u00e9sar Chavez of the Midwest.\u201d You\u2019ve organized farm labor communities for the last 30 years, fighting for immigrants\u2019 and migrant workers\u2019 rights throughout the country from North Carolina to Mexico. <\/strong><\/p>\n

You put together the Brown\/Black coalition with the code of conduct being signed by police chiefs on how to approach people in the minority community. You\u2019ve even been to England and have organized and advocated in Africa. We are honored to have such civil rights royalty right here in Toledo. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Baldemar Velasquez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> I advocated in the U.K. Parliament for a law against modern-day slavery because many European companies exploit workers abroad, especially in agriculture. That same exploitation exists here in the U.S., particularly in tobacco fields in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and even Southern Ohio. European companies like British American Tobacco \u2013 owners of Reynolds America \u2013 buy these crops, linking global supply chains to local abuses.<\/p>\n

Perryman: What took you to Africa?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> I visited Malawi, Africa, through our union\u2019s international network and witnessed conditions worse than those in North Carolina: workers, including children, earning just 85 cents daily. These global connections allow corporations to import cheap labor products into the U.S., undercutting American workers and worsening exploitation. We need sustainable trade agreements that promote fairness, not more greed. Profit shouldn\u2019t come at the cost of human dignity.<\/p>\n

So, for me, this work isn\u2019t just a job \u2013 it\u2019s a lifelong cause. If we believe in equality and equity and fairness and justice for all, we gotta do our best to live it.<\/p>\n

Dr. Perryman: What was your \u2018aha moment\u2019 that shaped your understanding and told you this is what I really got to do? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> It was watching my mom and my younger siblings\u2019 mistreatment and the suffering out in those fields. I was very angry. Living in the squalor we were housed in, chicken coops and barns. You\u2019re out picking crops in those rows, and you think that the only thing in life is when you\u2019re done with this row, but then there\u2019s another one just like it waiting for you. This institution, hopelessness, watching my mom and my dad being taken advantage of. The poverty was one thing, but what really hurt was the treatment of my parents and their younger siblings. It\u2019s something that a young man can hardly stand, especially when they cuss at your mom and things like that and call her dirty names. You wanna hit somebody, you grow up angry, and that was me.<\/p>\n

\"\"Perryman<\/strong>: When did life begin to click for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> What clicked apart from my early experiences was that I planned to join the Marines after high school. However, a teacher encouraged me to consider college \u2014 something I hadn\u2019t thought was possible for someone like me. While studying engineering at Pan American College, the mistreatment of my grandparents and the Civil Rights Movement shifted my focus toward justice. During a volunteer project documenting police brutality in Cleveland, an elder asked why I wasn\u2019t fighting for my own people after I casually mentioned growing up so poor, we made games out of playing with rats. That challenge stuck with me, and when I returned home, I began organizing migrant farmworkers with the quiet but powerful support of my mother\u2019s network of farmworker women. Those were my first FLOC meetings in Putnam County.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: Today, we see intensified immigration enforcement and deportation without due process. How do these trending forces connect to the struggles farmworkers and immigrant communities have always faced? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> We\u2019re moving at a high moment of tension around these issues that have persisted over the years. Now, we\u2019re becoming the scapegoats or a distraction to the broader things this current administration is trying to achieve.<\/p>\n

People are being abducted without a hearing, access to a judge or an attorney, and there are [many] individuals who have been sent to that prison down in El Salvador. It\u2019s not a prison; it\u2019s a concentration camp where people are held without charges, without the right to communicate with an attorney.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine people coming into our community and just picking people up and saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll deal with it later,\u201d without a hearing or anything? That is a serious threat. I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re getting away with it. Can you imagine our fate if you and I just snubbed our noses at the law and the Constitution? It\u2019s beyond comprehension, so we have to do everything we can to protect our people, have a good rapport with local law enforcement, and let them enforce local laws, not federal immigration laws.<\/p>\n

\"\"Perryman: Are there other things that should be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> The second thing is to convince local law enforcement to hold ICE and border patrol accountable for due process. They\u2019ve gotta have warrants with names on them. Otherwise, we\u2019re instructing our people: you don\u2019t have to talk to them, so walk away. If they detain you, they must have a reason to detain you. That\u2019s an essential piece on which we train our people on their rights.<\/p>\n

The next thing we\u2019ve got to do is propose a solution, and the only solution is to reform the immigration laws. So, we\u2019re calling for a new amnesty modeled after the amnesty of \u201986 under President Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was no friend of people with low incomes or the labor unions, but he did engineer that amnesty for some very practical reasons, and we\u2019re using his language.<\/p>\n

Perryman: What is the essence of Reagan\u2019s amnesty model?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> Number one, he said we need to legalize the workers here, whose only violation is being present without authorization. Almost 40 years ago now, Reagan saw the trend in our population growth and that it was skimming away the workforce needed in the future. We’re hitting that point now where many baby boomers have retired, and as people retire, we don’t have the birth rate in this country to fill the jobs that America will need. So, we need these immigrants here to keep the economy going and the United States’ ability to produce its\u00a0own\u00a0products and grow its\u00a0own\u00a0food. If not, we must rely on imports, which are a security threat.<\/p>\n

Secondly, we demand sustainable trade agreements because today’s deals are written by and for Wall Street, protecting corporate investments while displacing millions. Agreements like NAFTA under Clinton and USMCA under Trump were never about helping workers; they let corporations chase cheap labor across borders, devastating farmers and workers in Mexico and Central America and forcing families to migrate to survive. The border crisis is not the cause \u2014 it’s the symptom of a system that trades human lives for profit margins, that props up oppressive regimes while crushing people’s ability to earn a fair living. If we ever want real immigration reform, we must confront the root injustice: trade and foreign policies that put Wall Street first and humanity last. That’s why we’re marching on May 3rd<\/sup><\/strong> \u2014 to start a national conversation about building a system that stops displacing people in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"\"Perryman:<\/strong> What is some practical counsel for immigrant individuals, workers or young activists to manage living with the constant fear of separation and deportation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> We tell them to be proactive; join a group and get organized. Don\u2019t just sit there and be scared; get up and do something.<\/p>\n

Number one, know your rights about people detaining you. Do they have a court order? Do they have a warrant with a name on it signed by a judge? Don\u2019t allow ICE to come into your house unless they have a warrant with a name on it, and if the person with the name is on the warrant, then produce the person, let them go peacefully and do not resist or run. However, ICE has no right to come into your house and pick up everybody else that\u2019s in there.<\/p>\n

Perryman: Is there any other practical advice for migrants or immigrants?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> On top of that, have a family plan in case of a legitimate deportation order, and have your things in place. Include a Power of Attorney and a plan listing who will take care of your kids and property in case of deportation.<\/p>\n

Perryman: Labor and movement struggles are often disconnected, becoming siloed and therefore ineffective. How do you keep that from happening in Toledo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> We must make ourselves visibly available to other groups and people without them feeling that we\u2019re a threat. This is what we\u2019re trying to do with the Black\/Brown Unity Coalition. We\u2019re not going to agree on everything, but there are some common things in our communities that we can agree on, and then we decide that those are the things we work on together.<\/p>\n

\"\"That\u2019s how this code of conduct came together with the NAACP, Ray Wood, the Toledo Community Coalition, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Latins United and, of course, FLOC. We brought these groups together, discussed this code of conduct, and agreed that it would benefit all of our communities. We worked together and we succeeded.<\/p>\n

Perryman: Finally, amid the trauma of current mass deportation, lack of due process, and erosion of Civil Rights, what are the signs you see that the seeds you and others planted are still growing and give you hope?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1squez:<\/strong> What gives me hope is seeing real responses to our efforts, like support of immigration reform and the county commissioners\u2019 endorsement of the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct. We\u2019re working to extend these protections countywide and into places like North Carolina and Virginia, where many immigrants and FLOC members live without formal IDs.<\/p>\n

For the Black community, the code offers an alternative to ineffective internal affairs investigations, creating a transparent process where community meetings can hold law enforcement accountable. It\u2019s about building trust, not deepening mistrust, and continuing the work of justice we planted years ago.<\/p>\n

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at <\/em>drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D. The Truth Contributor \u00a0The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.\u00a0\u00a0\u2013 C\u00e9sar Chavez The familiar refrain, “What you gonna do when they come for you?” once served as the backdrop to a television portrayal of justice. This representation of our justice system glorified law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,250,252,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[292],"class_list":["post-15970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-local-news","category-politics","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15976,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15970\/revisions\/15976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15970"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}