UPDATE: 6/9
Saturday afternoon (6/7) ICE raided Canton’s Sunnyside neighborhood with a fleet of dark unmarked cars and fully-masked federal agents. The images and videos are chilling. No warrants. No due process. Just shadowy para-military figures “disappearing” people. This wasn’t in another country across the world, this was in Canton – OUR community.
We don’t even have a firm count of people taken, let alone names. We quickly canvassed the immediate community and gathered that somewhere between 6-12 people were stolen away without a trace.
If you’re unfamiliar, Sunnyside is the heart of the Latino community in Canton, and really all of Cherokee. This was targeted, and it was deeply cruel.
An unknown number of families, here in our community, are now destroyed. Kids stared at an empty chair at the dinner table last night, unable to really process the hole blown through the side of their family. Spouses totally shell-shocked, unable to sleep, and now unable to afford rent because the income from their partner has evaporated. Family units were destroyed because the government said so. And that’s before you consider the multiple businesses that closed for the weekend out of fear for themselves, employees, and patrons. It’s hard to put into words the searing pain that was yesterday, and the rippled destabilizing effect it will have.
ICE also completely failed to give reasonable notice to local law enforcement, risking the safety of our local law enforcement. I want to reiterate this was a warrantless, extra-judicial raid. The audacity to violate our community, without even meeting the thresholds of probable cause or reasonable suspicion is spitting in the face of our Founding Fathers and Constitution. The 4th Amendment exists whether the regime can read or not.
Sunnyside is a vibrant, deeply religious, and hardworking community – a threat only to racists. This is our community, our city, our county, and this trespass should offend us all to the core.
Municipal and county law enforcement were NOT part of the raid. We initially understood House Bill 1105 required county law enforcement to apply to the federal 287(g) program – an unfunded mandate which deputizes local law enforcement, granting them extra-judicial authority as a local extension of ICE. So we swiftly mobilized, urging against participation. Sheriff Reynolds reached out this morning (6/9) to clarify the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office does NOT in fact have an active pending application to the 287(g) program. This comes as a huge relief to our community.
To the good and decent people of Cherokee – I’ve got three action items for you:
1.) Join us for a powerful weekend of community support, with a “buy-in” all next weekend, to help local small businesses in Sunnyside recover from the economic hit. Register HERE
2.) Find your voice and Rally in Solidarity on Saturday (6/21) from 10AM-12PM. Register HERE
3.) If you’re Spanish-speaking, join our Latino Outreach committee. We’ve been building out support services for the Latino community the past year, and need all the help we can get at latinos@cherokeedemocrats.com
And a brief note to ICE – unless you have a warrant, stay the hell out of Cherokee County.
Yours in the fight,
Nate Rich
Cherokee Democrats, Chair
