Hundreds of people from the Latino community in Washington gathered at the State Capitol on Monday for the 21st Annual Latino Legislative Day.
The gathering, which organizers said included more than 100 legislative meetings throughout the day, aimed to ensure Latino voices are represented in state policy decisions.
“It does matter that we’re at the table, it does matter that we’re talking to legislators,” said Nina Martinez, Board Chair of the Latino Civic Alliance, one of the event’s organizers.
The day featured panel discussions and policy sessions where community organizations, state legislators, and others spoke about a variety of topics from healthcare to federal immigration reform, and more. Among the top priorities: passing laws to protect immigrant workers, banning law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings, and protecting data privacy. Attendees also called on state lawmakers to advocate for federal immigration reform.
“The harassment that Latino businesses are experiencing right now, the harassment of just our community members being faced with ICE agents, stopping them when they can and being actually very violent with them, it’s real,” Martinez said. “But we just need to start, you know, we need to keep fighting back.”
State Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, a Latina Democratic lawmaker, said the state has a responsibility to protect residents amid federal immigration enforcement.
“When the federal government is shutting them out and refusing to listen to them or treat them humanely, it is our job then to step into that role,” Ortiz-Self said. “I want to make sure that I’m representing all Washingtonians.”
A family from Vancouver shared their experience with attendees. Their relative, Jose Paniagua Calderon, 27, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December in Vancouver. Video of his detention went viral, with his family saying agents smashed his car windows, dragged him from the vehicle while in traffic, and drove over his foot. ICE has denied that they ran over his foot.
Paniagua Calderon is still detained and has been moved to multiple facilities across the country, according to his family. He is currently detained in Kentucky. The family said a judge approved a bond for him to be released from ICE custody, but that it was appealed.
“They’re just moving him around like cargo without notifying anyone,” Carmen Paniagua, his sister-in-law, said. “We just assume that he’s been moved because he goes so many hours without contacting us.”
The family member said speaking out was necessary to prevent such incidents from becoming routine. She hopes that by people coming together for Latino Legislative Day, their voices can be heard and changes can be made at the state and federal level.
“If we don’t speak up, it’s going to continue happening and it’s going to be normalized,” she said. “And that’s what we don’t want.”
