Community organizer asks Springfield officials to take action

Speaker Springfield community organizer Johanis Tadeo spoke recently on KEPW’s Legalize Survival with host Jana Thrift.

Jana Thrift I’m here with our guest, Johanis Tadeo. And we’ve asked Johanis to come and really share what’s going on in his community, because there’s been some crazy stuff happening in Springfield. Will you talk a little bit about your personal experiences over there?

Johanis Tadeo Yeah. Since everything started happening with ICE, I think the first things that started happening was maybe like in September, of course, there’s always been like issues and fear and racism, discrimination. But we specifically started receiving these cards in our mailboxes that were basically saying, ‘You need to go back to your country. We’re watching you. We’re watching your daughter. Leave or we’re going to do something,’ or something like that. 

So we brought it up to the city, especially because our community just kind of got extremely scared, didn’t want their kids to go to school. Kids didn’t want to go to school. We had people not wanting to go to work, to grocery shopping. And then as we started providing information and resources to the families, they started feeling a little bit more reassured. But unfortunately, our city didn’t take a stance. 

And in November, early November, ICE was in our city and it was grabbing folks. We had a couple folks from the Rapid Response Team follow these folks. They tried to take somebody on 28th Street. And I think it happened again on Nov. 19. 

And so families have been really scared because they don’t know, if I’m going to go to work, is ICE going to be there, if I go pay my ticket, if I take my kids to school? I know right now kids are being more reassured about what support systems they have inside the school in Springfield. But for a little bit of time, there wasn’t any information that was going out and families were terrified. 

So from my experience, I’ve been hearing a lot of these stories as I’ve been going with some of these families to go advocate with them, to parent meetings with principals, teachers, to try to address some of these things, as well as like the bullying that’s been happening where families are starting to feel a little bit more brave to be able to talk about these concerns because they’re starting to feel like they’re not alone. 

But I can only imagine myself, being privileged and being documented, I know that still fear still lingers in there that causes concern of like, ‘I’m at work, I’m working my double. Is my daughter going to be home, or is she going to be able to see me when I get home?’

Jana Thrift You have encouraged folks to come to the City Council and try to talk to their representatives, like, that’s one of our only tools, right—to try to ask our representatives to make a stand or declare a state of emergency. Some cities have done that. Tell us more about this communications that you’ve been having with city representatives.

Johanis Tadeo The response from them has been pretty slim, but we have gone to the City Council, I believe, like four or five times now specifically. I think it’s been ICE and the Flock cameras, and some of the response that we get from the City Council is that, oh, well, they’re going to have an answer for us soon. They’re researching, they’re getting more info.

And it sucks because it’s kind of like pulling teeth. You’re telling us to speak up? You’re telling us our concerns matter. You’re telling us to come here each week and certain places for us to look for support. But we’re looking to you for support. We’re looking to these folks that say these amazing things at the end that don’t really mean anything to us because there’s no action. 

I wish one of the City Council folks would come out, maybe go to the local food pantry or something like that to meet some of the families, connect with folks, hear directly from folks, meet us in our communities, come to the schools. 

What type of relationship do you have with the school district? And if you guys are on the same page, why aren’t you all communicating with some of this ICE response? The school district is within the city. Why aren’t you all talking to each other and finding out ways to really helping you support? You have kids crying. 

I believe the mayor has two kids that go to a dual immersion school, or maybe not in the dual immersion program, but at that school. So you have a lot of BIPOC, a lot of Latinos that attend that school, a lot of Latino kids. And if you’re seeing I don’t know if he has, but has he gone to the school and seen how many families aren’t taking their kids to school? Has he gone and tried to reassure as whether in his capacity as either the mayor or of status, to reassure families, especially at older schools, why not start at the one that your kids go to? 

We’ve seen them take other actions that have been extremely faster. But it goes and it shows our priorities for our city. And a lot of times, I know that they’re also scared to be attacked by their residents. But I hope when they hear our stories, we’re not trying to attack them. We’re bringing up awareness of what’s happening in our daily lives, the policies that they should be looking into to be able to approve and move them through so that our families don’t have to be in this situation. 

Also, how many City Council folks have reached out to our community? Zero. How many times have our mayor reached out to our community knowing, knowing that ICE is here, seeing Facebook posts, because I see them comment or like a post or like one of my videos. So you’re watching what’s happening in real time and you’re not taking any leadership. 

And I’ve been really nice going into the City Council being like, ‘Please.’ And I think other residents that came in there, we posted it, I think, at 8 a.m. and to be able to see the chambers filled and with people who have never, never, never, ever set foot inside the City Hall or inside the city chambers before they showed up, knowing that they were scared, knowing they don’t know the process. And most of those folks ended up speaking up. And that shows you, our community cares.

So within that, we’ve been seeing something beautiful rise, which is the community starting to come together, to talk to each other. Folks are taking groceries to people’s houses. People are picking up other people’s kids and taking them home or taking them to school. It’s beautiful and unfortunate that our community has to do this, because if we were part of a different community within our community, the support would be there. 

It was really beautiful to see our community come out. Really sad that this is what we have to come out for. This is really sad this is how our community learns the city process. I wish we could learn it for something more positive—working together for a park or something. Something within the city, bringing us in to show the things that we bring into the city. The beautiful parts. 

There was a comment from outside that someone said, they love our culture but don’t love the people, and I really hope that’s false. I really hope, and in order to see that is them taking action. Because again, we see them at our taquerias, we see them at our restaurants, we see them at our stores. That should show you you’re part of our community and we’re part of your community. So do something.

And ICE, they don’t care. They’re violating all these different things. They’re scaring folks. They’re breaking windows, kidnapping people. And it’s really, really sad that sometimes it feels like we don’t have support. And the only support that we do have is the community that’s really rising to being like, ‘You know what? Enough is enough. I can’t be scared anymore.’ Or if they are scared, they’re moving while they’re scared because we can’t just sit here and do nothing. 

There was another case of a 17-year-old boy in McMinnville. He’s like, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen, I have my ID.’ And they still broke the window and took him out and arrested him. And it’s, sorry, I’m getting kind of choked up because it’s just really sad to see this. 

And, I have a close friend of mine that, you know, he’s born in Minnesota, and unfortunately, he’s currently fighting his case in another country. He’s a U.S.citizen. So these things are actually happening.

Jana Thrift I was hoping that you might share some information: How can people be a part of a solution or or help in this situation?

Johanis Tadeo Yeah. First off, it’s kind of like what folks are doing right now, like: ‘If you see something, say something.’ Contact the PIRC, the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, which is 1-888-622-1510, which is reported, if you see ICE in your community, if you see harmful things that are impacting our community, call, as well as reach out to some of the local agencies that are doing stuff like Escudo Latino.

It’s a grassroots agency here in Springfield. Go on their Facebook. Go to their donation page and donate. 

That’s a great way of being able to help these communities feel safer, because that funding is going to help create packets, information that goes out to these families, and various other things that they’ll be utilizing. So please support. Learn about your rights. Look for any PIRC training, especially if you want to get invested. 

Learn a lot of these different things that when you’re out there that you should know. Because sometimes when folks want to be able to help out folks in the community, they don’t know how, and sometimes they make the situation worse if they’re not knowledgeable of how to respond when situations happen. So please, please go to the trainings, find out more information about that challenge.

Jana Thrift Is there anything that you’d like to say as a last comment before we end the interview? 

Johanis Tadeo First, thank you so much for interviewing me and being able to share some of the information out of what’s going on in our community. 

And then two is, get involved, get involved with some of these different places to help. Go to your City Council meeting, please. I know right now they’re all probably done till January, but keep it on your radar. Help share our voice because it’s needed. 

It was amazing to see how quickly we were able to pack a room. And it shows our power. It shows our voice. And it shows that our community is not going to stop until we get some basic rights, basic support for not just my community or our community, but for our entire communities. So yeah, so thank you so much, Jana, for all you do.

Jana Thrift Thank you, Johanis.

Speaker Jana Thrift from KEPW’s Legalize Survival spoke recently with Springfield community organizer Johanis Tadeo. Listen for the latest on Legalize Survival every Wednesday at 7 p.m. right here on 97.3, Eugene’s PeaceWorks Community Radio.