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Nebraska senators and immigrant activists gathered at the state Capitol Friday to back bills regulating law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The bills would prevent law enforcement from disguising themselves, creating agreements related to immigration law enforcement without approval, and entering community safe spaces to enforce immigration law.
The Nebraska ACLU and the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement held a press conference ahead of the judiciary committee hearings on the bills. Advocates supported the Nebraska immigrant community and senators, like Sen. Dunixi Guereca, shared that they wanted to regulate how ICE officers can behave in Nebraska.
“What we've seen over the last few months is an agency that is undisciplined. It is an agency that regularly violates due process and the very foundational document of our nation, the Constitution,” Guereca said.
Sen. Margo Juarez, another bill petitioner, said the group gathered to stand up for community members who are afraid to leave their homes, go to work or even to the statehouse themselves.
“We are here for our immigrant neighbors. We are here to protect all our neighbors. We are here to show them we care,” Juarez said. “We are fighting intolerance, xenophobia, racism, and hatred.”
Lina Traslavina Stover, with the Heartland Workers Center, said people are afraid to take their children to school, go to church, the hospital or work. Immigrant advocates filled the judiciary hearing room and echoed those concerns. Some said ICE agents are creating an atmosphere of fear for families and treating detainees poorly, adding that some people pretending to be ICE agents have committed crimes in their communities. They said this has eroded their trust in their local law enforcement. Alexander Liu said law enforcement officers should be identifiable for their own and for the public’s safety.
“If law enforcement are running around in generic masks breaking into people’s houses and shoving them into the backs of vans, it doesn’t look like law enforcement,” Liu said. “It looks like kidnapping.”
Guillermo Pena, a naturalized citizen, said he was there to speak for the love of his family and asked the committee to unhood ICE officers.
“All I ask for is true equality under the law,” Pena said. “I ask you to represent us, who we truly are as a people.”
The committee took no immediate action on the bills.
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