The war on immigrants by the Trump administration continues today with the arrest and accelerated deportation proceedings against a Maryland civil rights icon. Roxana Santos was wrongly arrested by Frederick County authorities on the suspicion of “eating while brown”—a reprehensible act of racial discrimination that hearkens to the worst periods in American history.

Song of the South: Maryland Grapples with Anti-Minority Past

Maryland law enforcement has constantly been harangued for their harassment of non-white residents of the state. Last year, emotional testimony about police aggression dominated two separate hearings in states’ most populous and diverse county, Montgomery County. During one of those hearings, a shocked county official, Councilmember Craig Rice (who himself is black) publicly exclaimed he was blown away by how little he knew of the plight of his constituents at the mercy of the county’s police force in immigrant-heavy Germantown. Police advocates often counter that increasing violent crime, including sex trafficking, gruesome murders, and more are the cause of their “proactive” efforts to curtail and combat crime in Upper Montgomery County. Many residents do not share their enthusiasm for what MCPD and other law enforcement agencies declare to be preventative measures against crime in a county where 51.4% of the population is not white, and 1 in 3 residents are born abroad.

Roxana’s Story

To quote from a CASA press release below:

The crisis for Santos and her family started in 2008 after Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins was elected and entered into the 287g program, when two deputy sheriffs illegally profiled Santos while she sat outside of her work eating lunch — an arrest best described as “eating while brown”. While Santos may not have thought of herself as a civil rights hero before then, she quickly filled those shoes. Her nine-plus years of highly contentious litigation included a precedent-setting decision by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finding that the Frederick County Sheriff had illegally arrested and detained her in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights to be free by unreasonable seizure. This past September, a Maryland Federal Court granted Santos summary judgment finding Frederick County & the Sheriff liable for its illegal and unconstitutional 2008 arrest in Roxana Orellana Santos v. Frederick County Board & Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins.

A Tale of Two States: The Maryland Trust Act

In 2017, the Maryland Trust Act was passionately championed by minority leaders in the Maryland General Assembly, especially from Montgomery & Prince Georges County. The bill would have protected Marylanders from the sort of harassment Roxana faced at the hands of Frederick County’s anti-immigrant sheriff’s department. The bill was killed by Senator Bobby Zirkin, who has been angling to take over as president of the state senate after Mike Miller eventually retires. Some claim Zirkin’s efforts to defeat the Trust Act, which was hailed by most progressives, was an effort to curry favor for Republican support for a potential hostile takeover over the Senate presidency in the future.

The MoCo Establishment Vs. Immigrants Who Built the County

Montgomery County is home to four of America’s top ten most diverse cities, yet despite this the county’s former executive Ike Leggett was adamantly opposed to protections for immigrants such as the Maryland Trust Act due to his ardent desire to woo the Trump administration into putting a new FBI building in neighboring Prince Georges County. Leggett’s 12-year tenure saw the loss of as many of 12,000 jobs from the county, a marked increase in corruption, as well as bigotry and discrimination against immigrant communities.

Sins of The Zirkin

There is little doubt that Senator Zirkin’s actions have directly endangered the life and liberty of Roxana Santos. To quote Delegate Pena-Melnyk of Prince Georges County from 2017: "Sen. Bobby Zirkin, shame on you! You are a DINO: Democrat in name only." Despite Zirkin’s anti-immigrant tendencies, he was re-elected in 2018. Ike Leggett retired quietly at the end of 2018.

Prayers for Roxana

Our prayers and solidarity remains with Roxana. Her life is jeopardy if ICE is successful in deporting her to El Salvador, a country riddled with gang violence by the infamous MS-13, which murdered two young people the day before their high school graduation in Montgomery County last year. Her children include three US citizens and a green card holder. She is not a threat to Americans in anyway. Only to white supremacy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday January 8th, 2019



CASA & Latino Justice Fund’s Press Release



CONTACT:

Lizette Olmos, lolmos@wearecasa.org, 240-706-2624

Christiaan Perez, cperez@latinojustice.org, 212-739-7581