Deputy editor Sara Lindsay says the death of Silverio Villegas González is not merely a statistic. It is a wound felt deeply in Franklin Park and surrounding towns, like Elmwood Park.
Some further context for Sara's heartfelt column: “Since January 20 through the end of July," according to the CATO Institute, "ICE has conducted over 16,000 street arrests of immigrants who had no criminal convictions, charges, or removal orders. Incredibly, over half (nearly 9,000) occurred in June and July alone: about 90 percent of them were immigrants from Latin America.”
Well said and I completely agree. Elmwood Park's diversity is one of its most compelling features. Our neighbors, immigrant or otherwise, all deserve a sense of belonging and safety. We fail ourselves and our children when we treat people as "other" and deserving of cruelty and violence at the hands of our government. Thank you for sharing Silvio's story.
You are correct I incorrectly stated he could have put people in danger. Once he fled and then drove into I coming traffic he put none law enforcement individuals in danger.
Fearing to stop is a issue and honestly a problem. If one has not violated the laws in place I cannot honestly understand that fear.
a fear of getting caught in a violation of the current laws in place, I absolutely get that. That's how they function. One does not want to go to prison, so instead they buy and do not steal the food they need. Just because they cannot afford the food they need, they do not get a pass for stealing it.
I do value order, and the law. Without it what protects those who are just not able to defend themselfs. We could and have lived in a fully lawless society in the past history of this country. I do not think many would want to go back to that.
We had a example last week of when someone goes off the rails and does what they felt was right well disregarding to the law. I do not think people as a whole want our society to dissolve to that being the norm.
Also I am not angry. Not sure we're you came up with that conclusion. I am a bit aggravated when this story had a good chance to be a editorial piece on the issues at hand. A deep dive into the facts of what went wrong on both sides, but it devolved into a opinion piece.
Don. No human is ‘illegal’. Some paperwork should not change how you feel about someone. Human rights are not an opinion. And if ICE tries to kidnap me, I would and will do what I need to get away. This is fascism. One day when fascism reaches you will feel differently.
No human is illegal is a lazy slogan. There is a difference between a citizens and non citizan , it is a law. Please name me a first world country which does not have citizenship requirements in most cases much more stringent then ours.
would you propose an entirely open boarder policy? If so could you explain how that would be funded and by whom? If we had no social welfare system it could be more possible as it was pre 1900 but with the programs in place to social support people that is just not a legitimate possibility.
In this last election the voting population voted for this. It was not a electoral victory it was won by the popular vote.
When at a low estimate eight mil people entered the country in four years, and instead of being properly processed and starting the journey to citizenship were sold a false hope.
I do not fear fascism that is not how you fight it. You ethier become a politician or vote for those you hope can course correct every four to eight years. Fear is something you allow to control you as a youth and learn to redirect into something positive as an adult.
I have a question what about the agent on the driver side who was dragged by this individual who was fleeing them. You can clearly see him reaching it through the driver's side window in a attempt to stop the individual from fleeing.
The number provided in the article states to cooperate and call the number for help not to flee. If you watch the video you see the officer on the passenger side back away. but as the car is fleeing you do not see the other officer roll off or chasing the car which would imply as per the report he was still in the window attempting to stop the individual fleeing.
Could you clarify what was incorrect in the report also please. You start the report is incorrect with out listing what is incorrect
Many folks do not agree with this enforcement action. but the individual who fled could have hurt more then just the agent on the driver side of the vehicle. That is right by a church and not far from a school. And he was swerving into traffic. If it was just a person running from say the police for a ticket would it also be ok?
Don I think the larger point here is -- this sort of national brute force for the nonviolent misdemeanor of immigration papers is bad for everyone involved. It sounds like we agree on that front. I'd imagine, if it were me and I thought I may never see my family again because of a misdemeanor, I'd likely try to flee as well. I'd honestly hope you would too. I'm sure he had no intent to drag the officer but we'll never know because he was shot and killed. No one should be dying over immigration status or traffic stops, that's the point.
I would not run from the police or a agents. That is what leads to these incidents. I was not raised that way. In fact I was raised if you run expect such outcomes.
I do agree the use of national guard is a problem. Immigration and Customs inforcement historically did these raids, and stop in almost the same manner for decades. It is just that now every one has cell phones. This was happening under Obama , Bush 2, Clinton, Bush 1 and so on.
Immigration policy is a disaster and needs to be fixed that is not in question.
In that outreach hotline it states keep your hands visible do not answer questions and ask for a lawyer. That is good advice. If you want to go dead weight make it more difficult for them to move you that will cause more charges but very light ones. But resisting in any manner especially a kentic one is not the way to go.
I feel that you statement is one of the problems these days "Id be likly to flee". I can accept although disagree you should ton foot. Now you add in the fact this happened in traffic on a main street. You can see in the video from happy nail the individual crossed into the other lane of on coming traffic. That is precious with out question.
If that officer was in the window. Which just as folks can assume he was not, we can also assume he was, as there is no release video proof ethier way. then that car becomes considered a deadly weapon. At that point why he was stopped becomes irrelevant.
If you willing to accept the danger to everyone around for that person to flee with out consequence and or to be free to do so that is your choice. But what are laws for if everyone believes that.
Most people would not be ok with just letting folks flee because they are in fear post a stop.
This more than just "fearing a stop." They fear indefinite imprisonment in concentration camps and being separated from their families. Surely you understand what is at stake.
You keep mentioning that he "could have" endangered more people around him but... he's dead. He incurred the most harm. That's the point. If you were killed by police because of a traffic stop (no matter how well or poor you performed perfect citizenship), I'd fight for your justice too.
It's evident you value order and authority above all else and that when people don't follow orders, despite how immoral or inhumane those orders are, you feel angry. However, I can look at a system and recognize when it's broken, despite what the orders say.
Some further context for Sara's heartfelt column: “Since January 20 through the end of July," according to the CATO Institute, "ICE has conducted over 16,000 street arrests of immigrants who had no criminal convictions, charges, or removal orders. Incredibly, over half (nearly 9,000) occurred in June and July alone: about 90 percent of them were immigrants from Latin America.”
Read: https://www.cato.org/blog/1/5-ice-arrests-are-latinos-streets-no-criminal-past-or-removal-order
—Kevin Gosztola
Well said and I completely agree. Elmwood Park's diversity is one of its most compelling features. Our neighbors, immigrant or otherwise, all deserve a sense of belonging and safety. We fail ourselves and our children when we treat people as "other" and deserving of cruelty and violence at the hands of our government. Thank you for sharing Silvio's story.
You are correct I incorrectly stated he could have put people in danger. Once he fled and then drove into I coming traffic he put none law enforcement individuals in danger.
Fearing to stop is a issue and honestly a problem. If one has not violated the laws in place I cannot honestly understand that fear.
a fear of getting caught in a violation of the current laws in place, I absolutely get that. That's how they function. One does not want to go to prison, so instead they buy and do not steal the food they need. Just because they cannot afford the food they need, they do not get a pass for stealing it.
I do value order, and the law. Without it what protects those who are just not able to defend themselfs. We could and have lived in a fully lawless society in the past history of this country. I do not think many would want to go back to that.
We had a example last week of when someone goes off the rails and does what they felt was right well disregarding to the law. I do not think people as a whole want our society to dissolve to that being the norm.
Also I am not angry. Not sure we're you came up with that conclusion. I am a bit aggravated when this story had a good chance to be a editorial piece on the issues at hand. A deep dive into the facts of what went wrong on both sides, but it devolved into a opinion piece.
Don. No human is ‘illegal’. Some paperwork should not change how you feel about someone. Human rights are not an opinion. And if ICE tries to kidnap me, I would and will do what I need to get away. This is fascism. One day when fascism reaches you will feel differently.
No human is illegal is a lazy slogan. There is a difference between a citizens and non citizan , it is a law. Please name me a first world country which does not have citizenship requirements in most cases much more stringent then ours.
would you propose an entirely open boarder policy? If so could you explain how that would be funded and by whom? If we had no social welfare system it could be more possible as it was pre 1900 but with the programs in place to social support people that is just not a legitimate possibility.
In this last election the voting population voted for this. It was not a electoral victory it was won by the popular vote.
When at a low estimate eight mil people entered the country in four years, and instead of being properly processed and starting the journey to citizenship were sold a false hope.
I do not fear fascism that is not how you fight it. You ethier become a politician or vote for those you hope can course correct every four to eight years. Fear is something you allow to control you as a youth and learn to redirect into something positive as an adult.
I have a question what about the agent on the driver side who was dragged by this individual who was fleeing them. You can clearly see him reaching it through the driver's side window in a attempt to stop the individual from fleeing.
The number provided in the article states to cooperate and call the number for help not to flee. If you watch the video you see the officer on the passenger side back away. but as the car is fleeing you do not see the other officer roll off or chasing the car which would imply as per the report he was still in the window attempting to stop the individual fleeing.
Could you clarify what was incorrect in the report also please. You start the report is incorrect with out listing what is incorrect
Many folks do not agree with this enforcement action. but the individual who fled could have hurt more then just the agent on the driver side of the vehicle. That is right by a church and not far from a school. And he was swerving into traffic. If it was just a person running from say the police for a ticket would it also be ok?
Don I think the larger point here is -- this sort of national brute force for the nonviolent misdemeanor of immigration papers is bad for everyone involved. It sounds like we agree on that front. I'd imagine, if it were me and I thought I may never see my family again because of a misdemeanor, I'd likely try to flee as well. I'd honestly hope you would too. I'm sure he had no intent to drag the officer but we'll never know because he was shot and killed. No one should be dying over immigration status or traffic stops, that's the point.
I would not run from the police or a agents. That is what leads to these incidents. I was not raised that way. In fact I was raised if you run expect such outcomes.
I do agree the use of national guard is a problem. Immigration and Customs inforcement historically did these raids, and stop in almost the same manner for decades. It is just that now every one has cell phones. This was happening under Obama , Bush 2, Clinton, Bush 1 and so on.
Immigration policy is a disaster and needs to be fixed that is not in question.
In that outreach hotline it states keep your hands visible do not answer questions and ask for a lawyer. That is good advice. If you want to go dead weight make it more difficult for them to move you that will cause more charges but very light ones. But resisting in any manner especially a kentic one is not the way to go.
I feel that you statement is one of the problems these days "Id be likly to flee". I can accept although disagree you should ton foot. Now you add in the fact this happened in traffic on a main street. You can see in the video from happy nail the individual crossed into the other lane of on coming traffic. That is precious with out question.
If that officer was in the window. Which just as folks can assume he was not, we can also assume he was, as there is no release video proof ethier way. then that car becomes considered a deadly weapon. At that point why he was stopped becomes irrelevant.
If you willing to accept the danger to everyone around for that person to flee with out consequence and or to be free to do so that is your choice. But what are laws for if everyone believes that.
Most people would not be ok with just letting folks flee because they are in fear post a stop.
This more than just "fearing a stop." They fear indefinite imprisonment in concentration camps and being separated from their families. Surely you understand what is at stake.
You keep mentioning that he "could have" endangered more people around him but... he's dead. He incurred the most harm. That's the point. If you were killed by police because of a traffic stop (no matter how well or poor you performed perfect citizenship), I'd fight for your justice too.
It's evident you value order and authority above all else and that when people don't follow orders, despite how immoral or inhumane those orders are, you feel angry. However, I can look at a system and recognize when it's broken, despite what the orders say.