A word from José H. Trejo
José H. Trejo is the program director of Breaking Free in St. Paul, an organization he describes in the message below. Alondra Espejel works with the misleadingly named Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network. In the St. Paul Pioneer Press article on the "international sex slave" indictment announced by Minnesota's United States Attorney this past Monday, Ms. Espejel criticized the arrests over the weekend of defendants charged in the indictment, 18 of whom are illegal aliens:
The arrests at the Bloomington Avenue apartment sparked a protest there Saturday."Officials weren't saying what was happening" because they were executing arrest warrants on 25 defendants whom they hoped to take by surprise. As of Monday I believe that some of the 25 remained at large.One immigrant advocate said as many as 200 people stopped to watch the bust when the word got out that immigration agents were in the heavily Latino area.
No one was sure what was happening - and officials weren't saying, said Alondra Espejel of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network.
Arresting people on criminal charges is one thing, Espejel said. But provoking fear and chaos is another.
"What I'm worried about is terrorizing an immigrant community on a Saturday afternoon, when it's family time, when it's down time," she said.
Advocates also decried what they saw as collaboration Saturday by the Minneapolis police, who by city law must not enforce immigration policy.
Mr. Trejo has circulated a copy of his message responding to the substance of Ms. Espejel's comments and given us permission to publish it. Here it is:
Hi Alondra: I’m confused about your organization’s protest to the sex slave arrests that took place recently. Am I to understand that your organization is protesting the rescue of women held in bondage or is it that the raid inconvenienced individuals who are in this country illegally?The biblical proverb provides that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. It seems to me that the biblical proverb applies to Mr. Trejo's message.In your opinion, what should Immigration and Customs Enforcement do? To allow these women to continue being victimized just so that no one in your community feels uncomfortable?
Unfortunately ICE raids are a fact of life in an illegal immigrant’s life. When ICE raids violate basic human rights or perpetrate violence against individuals, then it’s essential that protests and demands be made about their conduct. However, in this instance, it seems to me that they were attempting to save women that were being held as sex slaves. Isn’t this the type of ICE action that everyone should be supporting or is it your organization’s policy to protest any action taken by ICE?
I serve as the Program Director for Breaking Free, an organization that provides education and advocacy services to prostituted women and girls escaping violence. Also, I serve as the Co-Chairperson of the State of Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force. I have witnessed the degradation and devastation in the lives of women and girls being sex trafficked. If you could listen to their stories of the humiliation and violence they have endured, perhaps you would not be so willing to protest a raid aimed at rescuing them.
José H. Trejo
Program Director
Breaking Free, Inc.
P. O. Box 4366
St. Paul, MN 55104
To comment on this post, go here.
