Good evening.

Welcome.

Welcome to Toledo City Council.

I am Council President Van East Williams, and this is our committee of the hoe.

We're here to discuss immigration enforcement legislation.

I would like to give a few housekeeping items before we start.

Councilmember Gaddis will present items before this body.

Then we will go to questions and comments from city council members first, then to the public.

Please sign in if you would like to speak.

There's a sign-in sheet over here on the table to my right.

It will be the audience left.

If and when you do speak, please state your name.

You'll come up to the podium and address.

So your name and address for our records.

Everything is recorded.

You will be given three minutes and no longer asked to keep the meeting moving.

While in chambers, please hold applause, yelling, and all things may obstruct the meeting from moving forward.

We appreciate everyone being here attending the committee of the whole with Toledo City Council.

And now I want to turn this meeting over to Councilmember Gaddis.

I got her.

Oh, I'm sorry.

We're gonna do roll call for Committee of the Home.

Hobbs, Jones, here.

Comives here.

Kramer here.

Martinez, present.

McPherson here.

Meldon, Morris here.

Saranto.

Williams here.

Driscoll here.

Gaddis.

Here.

Quorum present.

Now I'll turn this over to Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

I want to start tonight by thanking my colleagues, our community partners, the advocates and residents for taking time to participate in this very important discussion.

I appreciate our conversations, your written testimony, and I look forward to hearing more today.

Fear is not public safety.

Trust is.

It is the responsibility of local government to ensure that every resident in our community feels safe and protected under the law.

Across the country, we've seen and heard reports of ICE enforcement actions that extend beyond reasonable limits.

These actions create fear in our schools, hospitals, workplaces, houses of worship, and neighborhoods.

While Toledo has not experienced a surge like Columbus, we want to proactively work together to establish guidelines for our resources and codify existing policies.

Tonight it is our duty to present proposed legislation, listen carefully to our residents, and find a balance between our legal obligations and our moral duties to protect our community.

Before I start with the PowerPoint, uh is there anyone who's also co-sponsoring that would like to say anything?

Okay.

So far we have two resolutions and two ordinances with a possible third walk-on ordinance, which we will get to.

The first resolution is urging constitutional conduct during federal immigration enforcement.

And this means that we are urging federal immigration enforcement agencies that are operating in Toledo to conduct civil immigration activities in accordance with the U.S.

Constitution and the standards of transparency, accountability, and public safety.

It recommends that our federal agents visibly display identification, avoid non-medical face covering, receive full law enforcement training, and interact with residents respectfully while refraining from excessive force.

This resolution also calls for clearly marked vehicles and compliance with local laws and city expectations to maintain public trust and community safety.

The second resolution that is in the package is sending text amendments establishing special use permit requirements for detention facilities to the Toledo City Plan Commission for study and review.

This resolution directs the Toledo City Plan Commission to review proposed amendments to the Toledo Municipal Code for land use regulations by defining detention facilities and requiring any new expanded or modified detention facility to obtain a special use permit before operating.

The proposed text amendment would establish standards ensuring facilities meet health, safety, building, and legal compliance requirements.

It would demonstrate adequate space for detainees.

The measure is intended to provide oversight and clarity regarding detention facility placement while addressing health, safety, and operational impacts.

This ordinance creates new municipal offenses aimed at protecting schools, child care centers, students, and educators.

It prohibits physically obstructing or impeding access to educational facilities, engaging in disorderly or threatening conduct near schools, and actions that take place.

Individuals in fear of harm within designated proximity to these locations.

The legislation also establishes a new offense prohibiting harassment or threatening communications directed at our educators related to their professional duties.

This measure is intended to preserve safe learning environments and prevent intimidation or disruption.

This legislation is another ordinance that establishes immigration status and city resource policies.

This is one that we really talked about at the press conference that these are things that we are following, but we want to codify them into code.

This ordinance creates a new chapter of the Toledo Municipal Code governing how city services, personnel, and property interact with federal immigration enforcement.

It prohibits denying city services based on immigration status, limits collection and sharing of immigration information unless legally required, and restricts the use of city funds, staff, or resources for civil immigration enforcement without proper legal authority.

This ordinance also requires council's approval for participation in federal 287 G immigration Enforcement Agreements and restricts the use of city property as staging areas for immigration operations while preserving compliance with court order and criminal law enforcement.

And then finally we were still working out all of the logistics with the law department, but we would like to walk on an ordinance that would be around biometric data.

Biometric data is identifiers such as fingerprints, facial scans, voice prints, retina scans, and things of that nature.

So this would create a new code in the Toledo Municipality Code Chapter 557, and it would regulate the disclosure of biometric data collected by businesses.

This means that the businesses that use this would post clear signage as entrances that they collect this.

And those are the four proposed and one possible walk-on legislation that we've worked really hard with the community to propose to council today.

I'm happy to hear from any of my other co-sponsors or answer any questions.

Councilmember Carl Mives.

Thank you so much, President Williams.

We are more than happy to receive requests from the community, and I think our best work is done when the community is involved.

I also want to thank my colleagues who stepped up as well as the mayor, who when we first proposed this idea to immediately said that he supported.

And then the administration that has worked alongside us in particular, our law director who quickly responded with his team and created these ordinances and resolutions that we see today.

So we want to express my gratitude to all of those folks.

And while it's true that we do not have the ability to tell ICE what they can and cannot do, we do have the ability to talk about how we use our resources, our employees, and our time to work to enforce immigration, federal immigration policies.

I want to make it clear that what we're doing is we're addressing the fact that we are then asked to use our resources in addition to the resources that they already have.

From my from our my standpoint, they certainly have enough to do what it is that they intend to do.

I do not believe that our city buildings, our city employees uh need to be involved any further.

Uh I think it's quite important actually that they are responding to uh calls of domestic violence or assaults that are happening in our community because one thing is very clear, and it was clear before any of this even began.

The city of Toledo does not have an immigration-related crime problem.

We just don't.

We don't see a lot of crime coming from immigrants in our community.

In fact, we see fewer crimes coming from immigrants in our community.

So to me, this is certainly about a use of resources and an appropriate use of resources.

It's about uh good governance and ensuring that we're not just duplicating efforts that, in my opinion, are morally wrong.

And so I'm proud to stand with my colleagues.

I invite other colleagues to join us in co-sponsoring this important legislation.

I look forward to hearing from the community tonight.

Um, and I'm excited that I have confidence that we are going to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, um, I wanted to thank um members of the community that approached our council to uh start addressing some of these issues.

Uh immigration in in Latina community has been an issue, a conversation for decades.

And similar legislation was put forth in Arizona back in like 09-08 that I came out pretty strong against and kind of had my hat handed to me without very little support uh on the on the DS.

So I was very proud of my colleagues that were willing to stand up for not just the Latino community, but we have a very diverse community in Lucas County.

Um as someone, if you look at our council, our council is very diverse, and we come from immigrant communities.

And diversity is not a bad word.

Um legal status isn't uh really a thing because it's our neighbors, it's our family.

It's the people that we see day in and day out.

And it made my heart sing, you know, to see that you know uh councilman Gaddis and Cosman Comives and Dr.

Jones and Councilman Um Driscoll and uh our newest member uh councilman Kramer all came out in full support without even thinking twice.

You know, I think our community had prepared been preparing for this day um for months, especially um those that don't have uh proper documentation.

I've been working in um immigration kind of in the in a different way than most, not necessarily on public policy, but more on financial literacy and making our immigrant communities more financially uh resoundful and making sure that they had adequate resources because at the end of the day, they don't get the benefit uh of being a U.S.

citizen.

But I do want to make sure that they have a path to citizenship so we are able to help fund uh a lot of um uh those that were here undocumented to get legal help uh by doing small micro lending.

And any time you want to turn a community around, especially a divested community, there are three key things that need to be uh in place, and then a lot of it is the um the population.

The number one reason why neighborhoods turn around is because of the immigrant population.

The second is the non-traditional um lifestyles like the LBGQT questioning uh community that helped turn around neighborhoods, and then also what I refer to as DINKS, double income no kids, that really helped put the cherry on top to make our neighborhoods uh vibrant and engaging and unique, and we should be celebrating that diversity, and we should not be creating impediments to helping individuals get the American dream.

And while, as my colleagues said, we can't dictate what the federal government does, we can sure as hell make sure that you are in our community will abide by our rules.

So I again I I sincerely appreciate all the hard work that was done by this council as well as by all the um outpour support by the uh by our community, and I look forward to passing this.

So thank you again to everyone's support on this.

Thank you, Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, President Williams.

Uh I'll be brief.

I I turn my light on, I mean I echo a lot of what's been said.

Uh I I turn my light on just so I can mention that um a lot of what work has been done on this ordinance, but a lot of the work behind the scenes has been done in um in conjunction with our public safety forces to make sure that uh because the work the work that Toledo Police Department does, I believe is very important, and I don't want to take any tools out of their toolkit when it comes to keeping citizens of this city safe.

Um we work closely with uh the chief, his deputies, and the public safety director to ensure that this ordinance makes sure that TPD can continue to do their job, which I believe to be very important, um, but also has some teeth in it with regards to what's been spoken about already about immigration enforcement.

So uh thank you very much to the to Councilmember Gaddis for uh doing a lot of the legwork on this and to the other co-sponsors, and I look forward to the committee hearing today.

Thank you.

Councilwoman McKay Kramer Thank you, President Williams, and I just want to thank you all for being here today.

Um you took of your time to come here and talk about this very important legislation, and I just really appreciate that you're willing to to do that for our community.

And I do want to also acknowledge that there are probably people that would also like to be here, but they are afraid to be here.

And so we have to be the voice for those folks and make sure that we are standing up for those folks.

So I think that is really, really important to say.

And I also want to say um, you know, some people have accused us of being reactive, and I just want to say this is both reactive and proactive.

We are, yes, reacting to things that have happened around the country.

We all watched in horror as things happen in Minneapolis.

Um, you know, I always think Renee Nicole Good, she would have been one of my friends if I lived in Minneapolis.

She looks a lot like a lot of my friends who I go out and protest with.

So, you know, we have to do what we can to make sure nothing like that happens here in Toledo.

Um, but also things on a smaller scale are happening in cities like Columbus, not very far away from us.

So, yes, we are being proactive in you know enacting this legislation, and I want to encourage you know my colleagues um to ask questions and you know to listen tonight and you know to vote for this legislation.

So thank you very much to all of you who are here and thanks to my colleagues for having an open mind to to hear from our residents tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dr.

Darns.

Thank you, President Williams.

Uh you took it online, Councilwoman.

You know, that that's what I said at the press conference um about being reactive and proactive, but more on the proactive side.

But definitely want to thank the groups that got together and reached out um in order to really bring this to light because it is a growing issue, and especially with what is happening nationwide and possibly globally, this is that proactive approach.

It is not impeding on anything, it is not taking away any rights.

It is literally adding protections and reaffirming us as a city that we support those who are coming from different backgrounds and wanting that quality of life.

Period.

I know that there's been some issues and discussions that has been been going around, but we are actively working with our law department as well as other parties to really iron out those details right now.

So this is just presenting what the hard work that my colleagues have been doing behind the scenes and also just reiterating how who we are as a city.

So when I say that we are this is both reactive, it's reactive to what is happening out here, but it is proactive because as I said at the press conference, when they come for one, they come for all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

Thank you, President Williams.

I just want to commend my um colleagues for being proactive.

For thinking instead of reacting.

And this is open dialogue where we can listen and we can hear, and I want to thank each and every one of you for coming out to share your thoughts on this.

It is important because when it happens to one, it's happening to all of us.

And we have to remember that Toledo is a div a community of diversity.

People from everywhere.

And I remember our mayor yesterday, he says, when we talk about diversity, nobody or being diversified, nobody gets an uproar.

We talk about diversifying your portfolio.

Uh oh, yeah, we do that.

But when we talk about diversity, uh some of us quinge, some of us react in different ways.

But if you look around this room right now, this is diversity.

And we are diversified because we live in the city of Toledo together, and we work together.

We fellowship together, we discuss together.

We don't always agree, but we can agree to disagree, and that's the power of community.

So I'm I'm open to listen and hear and understand better.

And I'm glad that we're doing it now versus doing it after a tragedy.

And I support wholeheartedly our police, our deputy sheriffs, all of those that protect and serve in the city of Toledo.

And we doing this, are saying we are also protecting those that protect and serve us.

So let's have the conversation, and I thank my colleagues for uh doing the groundwork during the study, looking at the data and looking at the events that have happened before us and talking to our law department.

It's a big it's a big job.

And all of us doing our small piece, making it happen together.

Because always close, Toledo is a place of endless possibilities.

Thank you.

Councilman Meldon.

Thank you, President Williams.

Um, first thanks to everyone for coming out and being here.

I'm excited to be a part of the conversation.

And listen, I do want to I do want to point out I'm gonna get up and leave at one point, and that's because I have a town hall uh starting tonight, so it's not any sign of disrespect.

Just want to point that out.

Getting up and walking out of the room can sometimes give the wrong message.

Um, no, genuinely thank you for being here.

Something that came to mind recently.

My wife gave me this book, which I'm sure so many people in here have read called On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder.

It's 20th 20 lessons from the 20th century.

I don't know if you've seen it.

The reason I think it's interesting is as I read it, lesson number one feels incredibly important for this conversation, and that is do not obey in advance.

And it talks about this notion of anticipatory obedience.

And you know, drawing any sort of parallel to Nazi Germany is always fraught because it's life is complex and it's not as simple as this is that.

But the point the author is making is that when new power comes in, sometimes people who support that person or group will say we are with you regardless of the means to your ends, and that's anticipatory obedience.

As I hear this proactive reactive conversation, I think it's more reflective, if I can offer another word, which is I see this body being reflective on what's going on around us.

I know that's some semantics, you know, but um it does strike me though that to not obey in advance means we have to think about what's going on, and no one entity or elected person deserves unconditional obedience.

And so for us to have this conversation is exactly what uh a legislative body should do.

And I'm glad to be a part of it.

So thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Moores.

Thank you, President Williams, and thank you all for coming to participate in democracy.

Uh this is very important for us to, we don't do this enough, I think, that we don't listen and hear on different issues.

It may not be quite a city issue, sometimes it could be a state issue, sometimes it could be federal, but I think it's very important for everyone, young and old, to come out.

Um my first career um was working with the federal government and working with immigration.

Uh I did that for 27 years.

And one of the things that was really struck me was on June 5th, 2018.

Um I was part of Congresswoman Captor's uh office, and there was a um a raid on Corso's um uh greenhouse in Castelli, Ohio.

Uh a hundred armed guards and canine units uh raided uh the greenhouse and they took suspected 114 employees, most of them women, um, and they took them away and took them very far away to Calhoun County, which is over by Battle Creek, so their family could not see them.

And uh most of them, like I said, were were women and many times single women, so they were in charge of the young people in their families.

And uh the Congresswoman and I and David Zavak at the time uh had gone in and actually met with the women inside the detention facility.

We had never heard of anybody who was actually able to get into a detention facility.

And it was um it was very telling.

Uh and I can tell you that the reason I bring this up is because this hits us all in the sense that um we are all immigrants.

Some of us came by force, some of us came on our own, but majority of the people who live in this area are immigrants.

And the the sad part, at least in my book, is that we don't tell our immigrant story, and that's a shame to all of us, because we have all come from someplace else.

And the fact that people, when they get here, they pull up the ladder and say, I have mine, good luck with yours.

To me is unconscionable.

You forget where you come from.

And you know, people say that that um 80% of the economy can be solved, perhaps with looking at legal immigration.

I blame Congress 100% for not giving us comprehensive immigration reform.

My grandfather came here on the Bresero program.

He came directly from Mexico to the United States.

And he came here on a legal program that helped during World War II to provide arms muscle to be able to help on the railroad.

We need those programs.

We need help in agriculture and all kinds of industries.

So the fear mongering and the unconscionable idea of forgetting where you come from.

This is what I think we need to focus on, and we need to make sure that people, all individuals feel safe in reporting crimes.

Whether it's and whether it's a domestic issue, whether it's in the workplace.

So while you are here today, do not think this is your last step.

You've got a lot of steps along this journey.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and thank you to my colleagues for um being here at this meeting.

We're currently going to move to public comment.

Um I will do my best to uh say your name appropriately.

If I don't, please forgive me and correct me.

Um there's will be a clock here, a clock here, and a clock behind me.

I actually look at that clock right there.

Please don't take it as disrespectful if I cut you off.

But you do have three minutes, and we have a large crowd here.

I want to make sure we have enough time for everyone that is on the sign-in sheet.

Uh, one thing that I will do is um I will cut you off, and I don't want you to think I'm being disrespectful.

Um, it may sound that way.

I may say thank you so much, but I'll do it as kindly as I possibly can.

Uh I will ask again, please hold your applause, please hold yelling out, and please keep decorum while we're in here.

I thank you so much for being here.

Um to begin, we'll have Enrique.

Also, too, if you hear a comment from someone that is coming from the public, and that's your comment, we don't need to have it repeated.

Uh uh, think of something else to say.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Please state your name and your address for the record.

My address.

My name is Henry Garcia Enrique Garcia.

Um, thank you so much, council members, for being here today.

I feel very encouraged after looking at the PowerPoint.

I'm here representing APS, a group of 25 community leaders serving Latinoamericanos, Isleños, and now including other immigrant groups.

We branched out into other subgroups, each containing many Toledo allies, filling in the needs of our migrant community.

And apps, we can see and hear the fear of the community and the questions they ask us.

We know if people not seeking medical attention when needed, avoiding assistance from local law enforcement, housing violations are underreported and racial discrimination forcefully tolerated.

And sadly, families not leaving their homes to enjoy lovely day out.

But I think that we can all agree in one thing.

No one wants to deal with government overreach.

No one wants to be targeted because of their name or the language they speak.

We urge Toledo Council to pass the legislation that protect our constitutional rights.

Never had the time to learn English.

God forbid he forgets his ID and is mistaken for an undocumented immigrant.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

And I want to just clarify, you can just say your zip code.

You don't have to say your four address.

You're good.

I understand the the address, but if you want to say your zip code, that would be great.

Um, Naileks, and if I say your name wrong, please correct me because I would correct you if I said my if you said my name wrong.

Alex.

Good afternoon, City Council.

I appreciate you guys listening to us today.

I come here as a community leader, as a community member and as an advocate for the families as I work for a local nonprofit agency.

I stand here as first generation daughter of immigrants.

Very proud to have multicultural, very proud to be bicultural.

It's important that we realize that these are individuals that come because they see the greatness of our country.

They see how we live, how we educate our children, how we educate ourselves.

And so it's very important that we not forget the humanity and why they come here.

I myself, I just joked about it.

I'm a double immigrant double immigrant.

I am from Chicago, Illinois, and I emigrated to Toledo for a better life for my kids to grow up in a small town and have wholesome values.

Chicago is huge, it's beautiful, but it's huge.

And sometimes youth and growing in your child gets lost.

And it's very important.

I come across families every day that don't want to walk out their house.

I'm grocery shopping for them on Sundays on my day off because they don't want to be in the streets.

It's very important that we remember that they come here to better our society.

Community means color, it means diversity, it means different cultures, it means different languages.

And I think that we can't be the be the be the bearers of bad news, and we shouldn't be standby when individuals want to come in and ruin communities.

These are families.

We eat their food.

We have so much diversity in our restaurants here.

Not so much the corporate restaurants, but just general restaurants that are diverse.

And I live in 43612, and we have a lot of Mexican restaurants in that in that area.

So I stand here as someone who advocates, who helps families, who translates, who interprets, who does all those things, asking you guys to please pass this bill.

And I appreciate the fact that you took this into consideration and allowed us to come in and speak to you guys directly.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, and thank you what you for what you do for our community.

You're welcome.

And welcome to Toledo.

Valentine.

Uh, and I am a first generation Mexican American.

Uh my parents immigrated from Mexico to the United States in the late 90s, uh, seeking a better life.

And we moved to Toledo in 2007.

Uh the first friend that I made on the east side of Toledo was a Laotian American boy named Kevin.

Uh Kevin and I became best friends, and we spent almost every day of our childhood playing basketball, riding our bikes, and and playing video games.

Uh, we were there for each other during the best moment of our life, the best moments of our lives, and during the hardest ones too, uh helping each other through deaths of family members and through uh our parents' divorce and just difficult things for ch uh children and and and teenagers to go through.

It was a it was a beautiful friendship, especially to me who came to Toledo hardly knowing English.

I was the only student who took ESL in my in my school.

Uh and I didn't know anybody else here.

I didn't have any family members here.

Um our households were different, our food was different, our cultures were different, but none of that mattered to us.

I learned to take off my shoes before going inside his house and eating his grandmother's pho.

Kevin could come to my house, Carnesada, and even learn some Spanish.

When we were together, we weren't Hispanic or Asian.

Uh we were just kids, we were just teenagers.

We were human.

That mix of cultures, Mexican, Laotian, and so many others is what makes Toledo a great city.

It's possible only because families like ours came here looking for opportunity and found a community in this city.

Toledo is a city that I love, and it should be a safe and welcoming place for immigrant families.

That's why I support this legislation and policies like this help ensure that families who come here to work and build a better future can feel safe and belong here.

If we believe in Toledo's values, then we should stand by them and say, let's do better in Toledo and let's support our immigrant communities.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Valentine.

And I just want to recognize Councilman John Hobbes just joined us.

Thank you for coming, Councilman Hobbes.

Jessica Molina.

My name is Jessica Molina, and I am the proud daughter of an immigrant and a migrant farm worker.

I am here representing the farm labor organizing committee, which is located in 43609.

So has had a long history with uh border patrol and ice, stemming back all the way to 1971 when they raided an entire tomato field, um detaining all of the workers, many of which were American citizens.

And since then, the raids and the detentions have grown to such an indiscriminate amount that it begs for legal guidance that allow for proper procedures.

So Flock stands along the community members that are here today.

Flock stands alongside the community organizations that are here today, and their request for constitutional protections and safety for all residents.

As you know, FLOC has had a long-standing history also of working with local government in a solutions-oriented way, and that is what we're intending to do today as well.

So, as many of you said, at the core of this issue, it's about constitutional rights, human dignity, and community safety.

Public safety only works when people feel safe calling 911, reporting crimes, seeking medical care, and sending their kids to school.

And as somebody who's been working in the Toledo area for most of my career, I can tell you that people do not feel safe calling 911.

They could be experiencing a domestic violence issue, and they do not feel safe calling 911.

They do not feel safe seeking medical attention.

That is not the community that we want to create here in Toledo.

As you know also, this reflects the principles that are in Flock's code of conduct.

So the legislation that we're asking you to pass and consider would reinforce that code of conduct.

We've heard too many stories of police pulling families over for a routine traffic stop, only to completely separate families in that moment.

Their lives change in that one moment that they were pulled over for a routine traffic stop.

So we hope that this legislation will help put an end to that.

We urge city council to pass this legislation, and we thank you for hearing our voices today.

Thank you, Jessica, for being here.

Rebecca Bundy's.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Rebecca Bundy, 43611 Zip Code.

I'm an I come as an immigration attorney at ABLE in Toledo, and I offer a perspective where I try to enlighten the world of immigration, as cynical as it will be, which is a field where I've encountered some of the best people despite their status.

Immigration has long been a convoluted area of law, often stacked against applicants.

And yet things have become so severe it's hard to even find the words to describe.

Defy court orders and due process.

I've seen attacks on green card holders, U.S.

citizens and immigration attorneys, even judges favorable to immigrants.

And that is not even the tip of the iceberg.

The point is cruelty, not safety.

We have been told to concede rights, liberties, and principles of humanity in the name of condemning violent criminals.

But the government is not focusing on violent criminals.

Instead of reviewing who is safe and who is not, they're going after communities at large.

They're going after law-abiding members of society, people who come to court in hearings to do things the right way.

Taxpayers, church members, business owners, children.

Many of the people we call illegals are allowed to be here and would be deemed safe, lawful individuals, despite their civil violations.

For decades, immigrants always have had their criminal history held against them, down to traffic violations.

Offenders of violent and many nonviolent crimes have long been detained and deported.

Even so, we had reasonable discretion toward who to detain and who to leave free to wait for immigration processing, which takes years.

These are people determined not to be a danger, who have been working, paying taxes, people who support themselves, their neighbors, and their communities.

They now risk waiting for their case and facilities lacking access to medical care, food, water.

They risk dying at rates higher than ever in immigration detention.

They risk being detained and deported whether the law supports it or not.

We are not living in ordinary times.

Immigration enforcement has trampled discretion, court orders, and constitutional rights.

If there is ever a time to draw a line and stand up for our communities and our local systems, it's now.

We all rely on humanity and reasonability in our laws and our systems.

Before we sacrifice fellow humans, we don't know or fail to stand up for them.

We need to consider what we're really sacrificing.

Immigration enforcement will continue regardless of what this council does, but we all stand to lose for a government that acts without accountability and limits.

Therefore, we need to stand up for them and implement this tool for limits and safety.

And I thank you for the broad support that this council has given regarding this legislation.

Thank you so much.

Brittany Ford.

Good evening.

I'm Brittany Ford.

I live at 43606 zip code.

Um talking about the Cato Institute and their recent report on how immigrants bring economic impact to our country.

So I want to talk a little bit about the actual local data that we have on the economic impact of our local immigrant community.

We have very similar findings to the Cato Institute, the Conservative Cato Institute report.

Here in Toledo, it's a little bit older, it's from 2019.

Um but it shows the real economic impact that immigrants have on our local economy and our population growth.

There are over 10,000 foreign-born residents in the city of Toledo, which is about 3.7% of the population.

From 2012 to 2017, the immigrant population increased by 12.5%, offsetting local population loss, which during that time was 2.3%.

The top countries of origin for our immigrant community was Mexico, China, Philippines, Canada, Lebanon, Germany, and India.

Not surprising to many of us in this room and that know our immigrant community here in Toledo.

Mexico was 14.8% of the population, with the next highest being China at 6.2%.

In 2017 alone, immigrants in the city of Toledo earned 200.9 million dollars, with 30.3 million dollars going to federal taxes, and 19.4 million dollars, and this is just in 2017, going to state and local taxes, leaving the immigrant community with 151.2 million dollars in local spending power.

With 3.7% of the city's population, immigrants are 4.6% of the workforce, and nearly 10% of our STEM workers, including our engineers, nurses, and doctors.

Again, while 3.7% of the city's population, immigrants are 5.8% of the city's small business owners.

In 2015, there were 1,900 international students in colleges and universities in the city.

And in the 2017 to 2018 academic year alone, they spent more than 60 million dollars in our community.

The immigrant population is also highly educated, and I'll just leave it at that.

So thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Rebecca Silvery.

But I want to start out by thanking you for the courage and the foresight and the commitment that went into this legislation, this proposed legislation.

I have lived in Toledo all my life.

I am 72 years old.

And one of the things that has always been a bright and shiny star is the culture that we have in Toledo.

I challenge everybody and anyone to go through one summer in Toledo and not get a taste of the diversity that we have.

We have just an abundance of beauty.

And I am so grateful for the proactive position that this council is taken.

I too have read that tyranny book.

And what you said, Councilman Melden, really hit home because for us to acquiesce before it makes us complicit.

So I want to leave you with something my niece said to me a couple years ago.

She lived in Toledo all her life.

She's moved to Denver and she came back and she was with me at the old West End Festival.

And she looked at me and she said, Aunt Becky, it's so nice to be back in Toledo.

It's so diverse.

She's coming from Denver, and I was struck by that.

And I said, you know, really?

And she said, it's not like this in Denver.

So thank you for the time, the effort, the work you put in this, and I really encourage you to pass this legislation because you're going to be able to look back and know that you are on the right side of history.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Rachel Davis.

Hi, my name is Rachel Davis and 43614.

Can you pull the mic down a little bit?

Pull it up.

Pull it up.

Okay.

I want to as well thank you guys for proactively taking a stand in our community.

Diversity is really important.

I have immigrants in my family, my sister has immigrated here from Turkey, and the idea of ICE being in our streets just makes my blood run cold.

Following the Constitution should be a bare minimum.

And our government has already given ICE more money than God.

They don't need to take resources from our sit our from our city resources.

We need to keep our resources for Toledo and let the federal government sort themselves out.

I also don't understand why in all of this legislation, who is hiring all of these undocumented people if they're so dangerous?

Like why aren't we going after some of these job creators that just somehow sit with their hands clean behind desks and are pulling the strings and we're playing whack-a-mole with vulnerable people who just want to come here and earn a living and create a life and raise a family?

And I just want to encourage us to continue to take a stand and be brave in these times.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Davis.

Marcia Roby My name is Marcia Roby, 43 43542.

My husband has a business.

You can pull it down a little bit, the micromolf.

There you go.

And my husband has a business in 43615.

Thank you for this opportunity.

And immigration.

We're all 100% for immigration and diversity.

The issue though is illegal immigration.

We are all immigrants.

My grandparents were from Germany on all sides.

So I well versed on immigration.

Nobody's using the word illegal immigration, though, and that is really the issue.

As a lifelong resident of Toledo, and now the greater Toledo area, and as a taxpayer, I expect and desire all local officials and law enforcement agencies to uphold and enforce the law for the safety of its citizens.

If ICE comes to Toledo to detain illegal immigrants, and in particular criminal illegal immigrants, if there are any, maybe there are none.

Should protesters attempt to obstruct the lawful execution of ICE duties, and that is a lawful government institution enacted by Congress.

Local law enforcement has the responsibility to provide the necessary help and crowd control and so forth for the safety of everyone involved.

Events in Minneapolis would not have deteriorated as they did had the local authorities there provided the necessary assistance to ICE.

We pray that with prudent and responsible execution of duties by local authorities, such mayhem as seen in Minneapolis would not be repeated in Toledo.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Roby.

Glenn.

Hello, Glenn Ryan.

43606.

I wanted to ask the question.

What do we do when our federal government commits unconstitutional acts?

We as a local body.

What is our obligation as a state and local community organizations when the federal government breaks its own laws concerning legal due process and search and seizure?

You don't have to compile any evidence.

You only have to look at Chicago, Minneapolis, or any of those other cities that ICE is currently staged at to see the issues.

And it's right in front of your face.

Any person with an iPhone or you go on Facebook, you can find the evidence right there.

We have seen ICE not only murder citizens, and not just Alex Pruddy and Renee Good, but eight other people, but have arrested protesters with their only aim is to create an intimidation tactic by holding people longer than is required to cause nothing more than both economic damage and prevent future employment because now they have an arrest record.

But not only that, these people who are arrested face deplorable conditions within the prison system with lack of food, overcrowding, and lack of sanitary conditions and the inability to get adequate rest.

If you are unaware, please read ProPublica's articles about the children in Delhi correctional facility in Texas.

And there's credence to those children's letters, because the very next day after that article was published, their cells were now being searched, and their crayons and colored pencils and their letters were taken away.

The incarceration of children cause permanent psychological damage.

The professional papers have well documented that fact.

So while you sit there and say, well, it's the feds.

What are they going to do if you say not here?

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Susan?

Susan Kine.

Keen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie.

And you said Keen, right?

That's a hard name.

You know, it's something you have to explain for your whole life.

You can pull me too.

You can pull that down.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Susan Keene.

Zip code is 43620.

I'm with the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition co-chair, actually.

And we are also organization that partners with Ohio Immigrant Alliance and also FLOC.

We are signatory to the Code of Conduct.

I want to raise, I want to thank you.

Actually, I can't see you.

I want to thank you so much for all the effort, concern, and the empathy you're all showing to the immigrant communities, and their need for safety, and justice.

Sorry.

And we hope very much that you consider these and possibly include and understand why we're raising them.

Suggested additions range from laws, ordinances, criminal charges, and executive orders.

We want a prohibition by law, not just resolution.

ICE, Border Patrol, Toledo police from wearing non-medical face coverings, including gators, balaclavas, and other tactical face coverings, while conducting civil immigration enforcement operations and otherwise interacting with residents.

We want a prohibition by law, Toledo police, for Toledo police complying with any and all ICE detainer request, even when accompanied by a judicial order.

Iron an ICE detainer request is considered voluntary and not mandatory for local law enforcement agencies across the country, regardless of whether a judicial warrant is attached.

And the act of holding an individual solely for ICE still faces constitutional challenges, and there are a plethora of civil litigation law cases across the country handling that.

And the violations is exceedingly serious under the Fourth Amendment search and seizure.

We would like you to add an ordinance or at least a resolution that states the official policy of the city of Toledo police is to enforce criminal codes without fear or favor and reminding the Toledo police that there is no exception for ICE violations of the law that are obvious and detected.

We would like a mayoral executive order to the city police that any ICE agent who becomes aggressive, assaults, shoots, and causes death of any resident of Toledo will be arrested by Toledo police on site.

No exceptions.

Ms.

King, your time is up.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Terry Lodge.

Good afternoon.

My name is Terry Lodge.

I'm an attorney at 316 North Michigan Street here in Toledo at 43604.

I'm also a member of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition.

And I'm going to refer to some things on the second and third pages of that NWOPC letter that has been passed around.

My first of all, I commend you.

I think this is a very good start, the package of proposed legislation and resolutions.

There are some problems, which I think you might agree can be fixed or corrected.

One of them is, and I'm in the middle of the second page, the proposed section 11502D of the City Services Ordinance talks prohibits basically city officials and employees from requesting information or investigating a person's immigration status unless, quote, a warrant exists.

I think that's a problem.

I think it needs to say judicial warrant because administrative warrants where somebody in DHS signs a warrant for another DHS officer to enforce at ICEL and Constitutional.

Is as I understand the scheme here.

The idea is to make public lands that are owned by the City of Toledo off limits for ICE for arbitrary ICE investigations and arrests.

What is missing, and I saw in a summary of the legislation, I'm not sure who the author was, but I did see that there was reference to the fact that city parks were included within the properties owned by the city that are covered by our protective measure.

It isn't in the ordinances.

There's no mention of city parks being the of the protected properties.

That's a serious problem.

And I would also add incidentally, I hope it would be nice if somebody would forward this to the law department, my good friends there.

That needs to be corrected.

I also would suggest that reference needs to be made to parks that are city property but have been some sort of cooperative arrangement with the Metro Park system, which is of course huge tracts of land.

But we're talking about hundreds of acres where all kinds of family reunions, festivals, church gatherings, gatherings of all sorts are held on city parkland.

And I can just imagine the trolling that an ICE platoon can do.

Um the final large significant measure that I request be dealt with, and I would ask for one additional minute uh well, is that there is a national book of standards about 700 pages long called the uh it's Department of Homeland Security's performance-based national detention standards.

Please add that to the zoning conditions.

Thank you so much.

Harold Mosley.

Thank you very much, Council Members.

43607 is my zip code.

I came here tonight because I wanted to hear what the city of Toledo proposes to do with a very complex problem.

We are in a very poor place when our local government is required to enact legislation and publicly declare that our federal government adhered to their sworn oath to the Constitution of this of the United States.

You have confirmed in my mind that this is going to be a well thought-out plan.

Um I heard Mr.

Colmives or Councilman Colmives mention the governor.

Both Councilman Drisco and Jones talked about partnering with the local law enforcement officers, and I cannot overemphasize that.

Um McPherson talked about proactivity.

And Councilman Meldon talked about unconscious submission.

He didn't say it that way, but that's what he meant.

I would close with this.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Cindy Matthews.

Cindy Matthews.

Okay.

Or Hamas.

I'm sorry if I mispronounce it, please correct me.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I really appreciate everything you're doing.

You know, I was going to speak about something else, but I changed the topic.

If they're looking for criminals, they are there.

Just look at the Epstein files.

Nobody get arrested.

Nobody.

The criminals they live in the White House.

The criminals, they are working in Congress.

I mean, when you see people who are committing crimes that pedophiles and the accusing the immigrant community of being that, that's a shame.

And they claimed our Christians.

They go to churches.

If Jesus was among us today, he was being chased by ice.

He might be nested by ice.

He might be killed by ice.

Thank you for your effort.

Thank you so much.

The last one on the list will be Paul Readup.

Please correct me if I mispronounced it.

Oh, Paul.

I'm sorry.

Good afternoon, Madam President.

You did mispronounce it, but that's okay.

It's Paul Redrup.

Is my residential zip code.

I want to thank uh all of counsel, including you, Ms.

Gibbons, because nobody ever thanks you for addressing these issues.

And uh there's so many things that I could talk about, but I want to talk about two things that are I think are exceedingly important because I don't want to get into the political aspect of it.

I could, and it would take forever and it would get us nowhere.

But what I do want to say is that we as a community and particularly TPD and other local law enforcement agencies have spent decades trying to correct the mistakes of law enforcement's past.

They have worked with the communities uh that were more likely to be put into prison uh than given uh the same generosity that other citizens uh I think we know who I'm talking about are.

And the reality is is that immigrants, whether they are here illegally or legally, are less likely to commit crime, but more likely to be victims of crime.

And we are seeing now the data shows, even in the short time that this ICE enforcement action has been in place, that immigrant communities are less likely to report crime and they're less likely to show up to court even if they bothered to report the crime to begin with.

That in and of itself is making our communities less safe.

Uh and I appreciate the effort by this body to do something about that, because again, we have worked very hard to make it more likely than not that folks that are marginalized are going to report the crimes that they otherwise would be afraid to report.

The second thing I want to talk about, and it's gonna put me at odds with some folks, but I would like the council to look more closely at the education-related ordinance that you all are putting forth.

And the worry that I have is that there is the potential that that ordinance could unnecessarily uh inadvertently affect the very communities that we're trying to product, uh trying to protect right now.

Uh we already have criminal trespassing laws, we have assault, we have menacing, we have the Safe Schools Act.

There are a lot of ordinances in the city of Toledo uh and on the state uh revised code that protect people but also uh educators.

What I worry about is that that ordinance as currently written is extraordinarily broad and could easily be used against the parents uh who are already victims of respectability politics and respectability law enforcement.

Uh and so I would ask that perhaps we look at that language and tailor it a little more closely uh to make it uh less likely than not that we have inadvertent enforcement and an expansion of the police state as opposed to a restriction of it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

With that being all of the signatures that we have to sign up to speak, I am open to take three more speakers.

If anyone would like to speak at this committee hearing, you can stand come up here.

I am taking three more speakers, and you have three minutes.

So line up.

Thank you so much for everyone that has come out and has been respectful of this room and our colleagues, and I appreciate it.

Please pull it down, state your name and your zip code.

Hi.

Remote badges, uh 43609.

The old cell phone.

And I wanted to just uh basically say that uh it's just really uh frustrating and insulting, not from you all, but the fact that we have to come here and you know, as an indigenous uh Mexican person, they have to come up here and defend why you know this whole conversation has to happen.

Um, you know, when you go around Toledo and you look at all these um uh monuments and signs that talk about how you know you know we've got like maybe I don't know, 20,000 years, our DNA has been here 20,000 years.

And then you look at the folks from Europe and Spaniards and the British and all that, you know, 500 plus years, uh and you know, they say we were the savages and we were gonna make things better for us, and look what they've done.

You know, they've essentially destroyed everything.

And so we're here to once again to say that you know um, you know, you you should clean up your own backyard before you come out here and try to tell us that we're so-called, you know, uh these illegal folks, and I hate that word.

Um, you know, we have treating um paths, and we have been coming from Argentina all the way over to Alaska uh for the last 15, 20,000 years without having to have a frickin' immigration uh passport or acknowledgement.

Uh so uh you know, just keep that in mind as you're as you're thinking about this.

What I'm gonna be looking for is when you all come back together to do your vote, I'm hoping that everybody at this table at this day's here is is voting yes to pass this passage at a minimum.

And for those who vote no, uh it's gonna be a quite um uh sad situation because everybody seemed to give such eloquent you know introductions about you know how they really cared about this issue.

So I'm gonna be looking out for that.

Uh and I'll be here whenever that date and time happens.

But just you know, keep in mind that um uh we were already here, okay.

We don't need to be uh have uh the ice somehow defend ourselves about ICE and what they do and what they don't do.

So uh gracias.

Thank you very much for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Hello, hello.

I am Peggy Daly Masternack.

I live in 43606.

I wasn't going to speak, but something that got said motivated me to get up here.

Um support of immigrants without question, as far as I'm concerned, is what we all need to be about everywhere, every city, certainly here in this country that has a Statue of Liberty that welcomed them.

Um I support these ordinances and want them enforced, and I want them strengthened.

Um there's a group of people besides all the speakers that you've heard that you may not have considered.

It's my understanding that to the city of Toledo supports Toledo sister cities, and I want to tell you of my own experience with hosting four different people from war-torn countries through Toledo sister cities, uh civil engineer from Bosnia and Herzegovina and three teenagers at various places from Lebanon, Egypt.

She went back to Arab Spring, and at the height of the Iraq war, I want to tell you about just one.

Ahmed.

I've lost touch with Ahmed and I'm heartbroken about it because his mother Ahmed's father had been killed during the Iran-Iraq war while she was pregnant with him.

This was all she had, and her mother.

While Ahmed came here for four weeks and stayed with our family, his grandmother died, her mother died, and she did not have the heart to tell him because her statement was this is the only fun this young man has ever had.

His entire life was that context.

She had the courage to send her young man here who definitely did not look like a white American at the height of that war, where we were illegally bombing their country, had the courage to send him here, along with young women who were wearing hijabs and other people who were clearly not people who belonged in America, but we welcomed them here through the Toledo Sister Cities program, and our family was greatly enriched.

And I am thrilled, I'm I don't know what happened to them.

It breaks my heart, but I am thrilled to death to know that they will not be coming back here to see the risk that we have involved.

And if you have Toledo Sister Cities, people that are being hosted from these types of countries, imagine the courage it would take for them to be here.

So if they are picked up, imagine the international incident.

And if you don't know, passports don't matter, citizenship does not matter.

Ask about Mohammed Ibrahim if you do not know who he is.

None of that mattered to the ICE people in Minneapolis or any other place in this country.

So think about the people that aren't considered.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

And this is the last comment, and thank you so much again for everyone that has come out.

Please.

Hi, um, my name is Angelina.

I'm South Ender Forever, 43609.

Um, I first time ever being at a city council meeting, so it's a little overwhelming, but it's a very good step because there's something in me that's ready to go.

Um I'm the first female Mexican American graduate of college in my family.

Um, Mexican.

The other thanks.

Well, I mean, my kid is now too, but um but I'm this is what makes me because they didn't have rights to do this.

They came, you know, from Mexico.

And then for my dad to be a young man and go straight into the military to fight for this country.

I feel like this is the least part that I can do.

But sorry, I'm emotional too, is to get up here and tell you guys thank you for acknowledging this, acknowledging our city.

Um, thank you for everybody behind me for being here.

I mean, we have signs in our yards that say love your neighbor.

So we need to be loving our neighbors.

We need to be talking to our neighbors.

Um, I have no clue what to do, but my family at this moment knows she's doing something with this, or you know what I mean?

Or you know what I mean?

If it's between me and somebody else, I'll I will take one to the chin for somebody else.

So um thanks.

And if anybody knows what a 42-year-old mom can do to help other people in the community, um, please let me know because I really, really, really want to help in whatever little way I can.

That's all.

Thank you so much.

I sure I definitely appreciate everyone coming out.

I appreciate the community.

This is what we need, not just for this topic, but all topics, because everything we do here in this room affects our lives.

This is something that's so important.

I always say this love will conquer all, and I hope that you guys know that we love Toledo, and this is why we do this work.

Without further ado, this meeting is adjourned.