Community Theatre Teaches ICE Raid Survival Skills
El Mensajero, News Report, Clarisse Céspedes, Translated by Elena Shore, Posted: Aug 09, 2008
Editor’s Note: A group of college students in San Jose, Calif., is using interactive theatre to teach immigrants what to do to avoid being arrested by immigration agents. Clarisse Céspedes reports for Spanish-language newspaper El Mensajero in San Francisco.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — From the Aztecs to the Greeks, civilizations around the world have used theatre as their primary means of mass communication. Important messages crucial to the survival of the people were broadcast through plays, something that has been lost with the passage of time. Today, in a city known as the birthplace of high-tech, a group of Hispanic students is resurrecting popular theatre, and using it to help instruct immigrants in an urgent task: protecting them from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
The series was organized by Students Advocates for Higher Education (SAHE) from San Jose State Univesity, COCHITLEHUAL-LI ("dream" in the Mexican indigenous language Nahuatl) from Evergreen Community College, and LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens).
In its opening performance, the curtain goes up and various workers appear who are suddenly interrupted by immigration agents asking for their papers. They perform the scene twice: The first time, the workers get arrested; the second time they don’t. The only difference in the two scenes is the way the workers respond to the ICE agents.
The MC, student Luis Ruelas, leads a discussion with the audience, asking them what they would do in real life to avoid falling into the hands of immigration authorities, and the best way to get out of it if they do.
More and more people now carry what they call a “red card,” an information card that can be shown to ICE agents by immigrants who want to avoid saying anything that could incriminate them. The card explains that the worker has the right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer. But few people know that they should also have a phone card with them so they can make a call if they are arrested, and a separate piece of paper with the phone numbers of their emergency contacts. “You know this, but in the moment you get nervous and you forget what you have to do. Listening to all of this, I remember and I feel safer,” explains José Antonio, who works in roofing. “You have to speak forcefully, not bow down, if something like this happens,” he adds.
Lawyers Mark Silverman of the Immigrants Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and Richard Hobbs of Santa Clara County tell the audience all the details they need to know, and advise them to learn to fit in and go unnoticed. They suggest that they should maintain their cars in good condition and not drink when they go to parties. “These are difficult times and you have to be more ready than ever,” says Cecilia Tabares, a mother who lives in San Jose.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO OPEN THE DOOR
This is one of the hardest lessons. When the curtain goes up again and shows two women talking in their home, a groan can be heard from the audience. “They even go to your house, with your family… That hurts,” observes Manuel, an audience member.
Raids on people’s homes have been the distinguishing mark of U.S. immigration policy in recent years, opening a wound that does not heal.
The audience learns that nothing in the world can force them to open the door to a stranger because their family is at stake and they don’t want their children to live through the drama of seeing their parents arrested. Even if the agents ask for someone who doesn’t live there, even if they say they are the police, the door should not be opened.
The students ask for a volunteer from the audience and a woman climbs on stage. She knows her role well without being told what to do, and although it appears that the ICE agents are about to knock the door down, she stays calm. She isn’t intimidated by an arrest warrant. She asks them to slip their identification under the door and when they say it doesn’t fit, she asks them to leave.
This concludes the scene that students call "the migraine," the nightmare scenario that will stay with audience members for years to come.
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
When the curtain goes up again, two students are sitting in their dorm room, in an episode the performers call "Detained Dreams." One of them is talking on the phone to his mother in Mexico.
Immigration agents arrive and ask for someone who isn’t there. In passing, they ask the student who opened the door where he’s from and where his identification is. Telling them that he’s Mexican results in his arrest.
The audience learns that universities and community colleges keep information about their students completely confidential.
When the scene is repeated, the actor who plays the student tells the agents that if they want personal information, they’ll have to go to the university’s administrative office, and the curtain goes down to the sound of applause.
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What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself from Raids
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User Comments
legalatina on Sep 01, 2008 at 18:25:02 said:
The best way for illegal aliens to protect themselves from ICE...is to not cross our borders illegally in the first place. Criminals always have to look over their shoulder ...and illegal aliens are no different. The most humane, logical thing to do is for the illegal aliens to get their affairs in order, and make arrangements to self-repatriate on their own terms before they are forcibly deported. Americans have had enough.
reason/logic on Aug 20, 2008 at 18:53:01 said:
When they come to take and take and take with no conscience; no remorse for those from whom they steal;
the poetry is nothing but no-know-etry.
soulnote on Aug 19, 2008 at 15:53:18 said:
How did you come to this conclusion?
Was it a contusion?
Did you separate your crayons in kindergarten and only play with one color?
Humans are global, natural and allied by one blood- humanity spills out of all of us if we let it.
If you are soaked with hate- can you see your life's fate?
You are drawing boarders that are keeping you from looking into your own soul...
Take a breath, like every human does everyday and try to deny the connection to your own reflection- the hue might be different, but skin and bones are skin and bones...
firtst/last on Aug 15, 2008 at 19:48:58 said:
"Terry" is an obvious hispanic troll.
The socioeconomic concerns of the LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS should never be dismissed nor diminished just because there are low-wage peasants willing to replace them.
BTW - did any of them ever stop to think that their core value to employers is the CHEAP LABOR they offer? Given that fact, they should expect to NEVER receive anything above "poverty wages", because their willingness to work for such pittance was their selling point to begin with. Once they start thinking they can compete with legal citizens at legal citizens' wages, their "American Dream" will be over for them...just like it is now over for so many US citizens.
-YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW... remember THAT.
Terry on Aug 14, 2008 at 19:27:11 said:
How pathetic for all of you anti illegal dick heads to say that these students should be arrested. Remember in our constitutuion that promises freedom of speech, doesnt that mean anything idiooots? and by the way, how many white people are gonna go out their in the field and pick fruits in a hundred and fifteen degree? are you kidding me!! we know how sensitive our skin is, especially with the high rate of melanoma. God knows how much we think we own america and we think think when God comes for this world only some countries are gonna go and America is gonna be left.. well for all you haters wake up and smell the coffee, you idiots. This country is about immigrants so check your history, we all came from somewhere other than america. Free these illegals now and let them be free, a pathway to citizen for the ones that are paying their dues and not getting into trouble with the law. You can hate all you wantand i am a realist not like you narrow minded fags.
tsrif/tsal on Aug 13, 2008 at 13:42:57 said:
I bet none of the illegal "supporters" live in Los Angeles or live at the socio-economic level who has to COMPETE with these invaders. There are multitudes of horror stories about skilled, experienced trade workers getting laid off in order to be replaced with three illegals (3:1) for the same pay... that THEY EARNED and DESERVE.
Between you and all the PC numbskulls, we are going to have to rely/put more pressure on ICE and E-Verify for any kind of positive impact to reclaim jobs for American citizens.
tsrif/tsal on Aug 13, 2008 at 13:19:08 said:
I bet none of the illegal "supporters" live in Los Angeles or live at the socio-economic level who has to COMPETE with these invaders. There are multitudes of horror stories about skilled, experienced trade workers getting laid off in order to be replaced with three illegals (3:1) for the same pay... that THEY EARNED and DESERVE.
Between you and all the PC numbskulls, we are going to have to rely/put more pressure on ICE and E-Verify for any kind of positive impact to reclaim jobs for American citizens.
MaryJ on Aug 12, 2008 at 21:59:58 said:
Bill -- no illegal alien watches my children or cleans my toilet. Yet I have to pay for the all the \"free\" social services they use up nonetheless -- at the expense of my own child who gets an inferior public school education, for which I pay through the nose with my property taxes even so. Fair? If you feel so sorry for them, you are free to invite a few into your home and pay for their expenses yourself -- all of them, without help from \"free\" state services. Don\'t force your neighbors to pay for your own private charity impulses. Do-gooders who expect other people\'s money to pay for their do-gooding aren\'t really do-gooders. The US is not a charity, it\'s a country whose citizens needs should come first. Reed -- stuff the race card, it doesn\'t work anymore because your side has over-played it ad nauseum. Remember the story of the little boy who cried wolf too many times? Also there\'s no need to pick grapes for 12 hours become more and more vineyards and grape fields are turning to mechanical harvesters.
Bill on Aug 10, 2008 at 12:47:24 said:
It's sad when our society is scapegoating the most vulnerable and desperate among us. They risk their lives crossing a desert to clean our toilets and watch our children and we treat them like this?
Reed Adam on Aug 10, 2008 at 12:16:08 said:
I am really impressed and inspired at what these students are doing to assist the undocumented community. Latinos--legal and otherwise--are being unfairly in this climate where racism, profiling and scapegoating against anyone who looks browns has somehow become acceptable. Without the (too often exploited) labor of the undocumented, there would be little work done in construction, agriculture and service. For all of you haters of "illegal aliens", I'd like to see you pick grapes for 12 hours in 110 degree heat.
Instead of spitting racist and angry diatribes, we should be celebrating the rich contributions that all immigrants have made to this country. We should also be advocating for a fair immigration policy that:
--secures our borders
--provides a path to legalization for law-abiding undocumented workers
--offers better protection to all workers
--creates a way for American businesses to easily and efficiently bring in international workers when they are needed
--end the climate of fear in the Latino and undocumented communities that has been so destructive in the past few years.
--protects the human rights of all Americans, regardless of their immigration status
MaryJ on Aug 09, 2008 at 19:16:55 said:
No doubt taxpayer funds were used to aid and abet the blatant lawbreaking. If these people put as much time and energy into turning their home country into something worth living in, as they put into breaking US law and harassing law-abiding US citizens, they would be living in a paradise by now.
Dana on Aug 09, 2008 at 19:15:09 said:
Mexico is a very wealthy country, consistently listed around #15 in GDP among nations.
Mexican citizens are too lazy to insist on long-overdue reform. It's easier to waddle over the border and complain about the victimization they suffer at the hands of the cruel Americans.
What BS. Go home and shut up.
note2self on Aug 09, 2008 at 17:44:10 said:
Great job by these students. I always laugh at the comments. Makes you wonder if these people still believe that the "South will rise again"!
Primero/Ultimo on Aug 09, 2008 at 17:22:12 said:
It doesn't matter what they say/do or don't say/do. ICE will detain them if they are illegal. That's why they should go peacefully while they can via "Operation Scheduled Departure". Non-compliance will lead to detainment in any of the hundreds of facilities the US government has been preparing to populate with aliens.
ransome on Aug 09, 2008 at 14:27:19 said:
Is illegal immigration a civil rights issue in that it disenfranchises all legal Americans and breaks the social contract that binds all citizens in this country? First of all, illegal immigrants have no civil rights in the US. They have civil rights in their own country.
Civil rights are for citizens and are derived from the social contract with the common consent of the society at large, our government and our economic, government/political, human/social, and education/information institutions. As part of our social contract, Americans have an obligation to go to war, fight in defense of this country, and if necessary, die. Implied in the social contract is that within our territory, we will have civil rights due us as citizens and protectors of the country.
The question is our civil rights legally being denied? In the economy, business wants cheap labor and encourages illegal immigration and globalization. Our educational systems are expending large sums on the education of their children at the expense of our children. Our human/social system demands that these people leave regardless of circumstances and very little is being done about it. Our presidential nominees wants to legalize the tens of millions immigrants thus give them our civil rights with none of our obligations.
The problem is that illegal aliens expect the same rights and privileges as American citizens have no such military obligations. After jumping in front the immigration line, they expect to pay no dues, and suckle on the American tit. It is the proverbial gain without pain.
Illegal immigrants have civil rights, in their own country. They also have a social contract to fight in the wars of their own country. When war comes to this country, they have the right to simply leave. Illegals do, however, have human rights which are the basic rights that the host country believes that all people should have. The question is in the process of allocating human rights to foreign nationals are our social contracts being abrogated, our civil rights being abridged, and many of us being relegated to a lower position in the social hierarchy? Are there avenues for legal action? For example, is it a civil rights violation to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and not to out of state American citizens, particularly the new student who was just discharged from fighting in Iraq?
His on Aug 09, 2008 at 13:17:48 said:
"Do not mistreate an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt." Exodus 22:21
We live in a country that was built by immigrants, many came to this country without documentation. Remember our collective heritage before condeming others.
scout on Aug 09, 2008 at 12:35:13 said:
The second word in the article, 'Aztecs,' a heathen bloody group of organized gangsters, shows the criminal leaning of the writer.
Illegal immigration is ILLEGAL, why do you think they enter illegally? Drug runners and message runners to their gangster overlords in prison or on the meth/cultivation farms.
scout on Aug 09, 2008 at 12:31:14 said:
Why aren't these gangsters of 'arts' arrested for conspiracy? Perhaps a cell at San Quentin would adjust their wayward attitude.
Owen Thomas on Aug 09, 2008 at 11:30:20 said:
Rebel,
Go back to the south and learn that our country was unified by a civil war. We live in a land of freedom of speech. We have a problem with admitting workers from Mexico but we must deal with it in a lawful manner. The age of lynching is long past.
How can we utilize the Mexican workers in our industries? We can create a peaceful and prosperous world by utilizing all resources.
Rebel on Aug 09, 2008 at 09:32:43 said:
Arrest these students. They are aiding/abetting illegal aliens, and that is a crime. How ridiculous these pro-illegal people are.
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