By TONY GUERRERO
Hays Post
Protestors gathered Sunday afternoon in Hays, voicing opposition to ICE deportation efforts following the shooting of a Minneapolis woman.
A Facebook event page said the demonstration was organized to oppose cruelty, militarized enforcement and the normalization of violence in communities.
The protest was held in solidarity with events in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot and killed by a U.S. ICE officer.
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Janae Morton said she attended the protest because she believes the current state of the country calls on people everywhere to take a stand.
"I think in western Kansas, a lot of times we think we're immune to what happens in bigger cities and places across the country, but we're not," Morton said.
Morton described the Minneapolis incident as a murder.
"The federal government murdered a citizen in broad daylight, and they're lying about it. I don't think there's really anything to argue or debate, even if what she did was wrong," she said. "They're federal ICE agents and couldn't detain her. She was a citizen."
Morton said immigration enforcement should be carried out legally and humanely and called for easier pathways to citizenship.
"I don't think ripping people away from their families and throwing them violently out of the only home that most of them have ever known is the right way to handle it," she said.
Allie Baranowski said she attended the rally in support of Rene Good and criticized ICE's deportation tactics.
"They're awful," Baranowski said. "They're taking people out of courtrooms."
She said children are also being picked up at schools.
"They're picking areas where people are going about their normal lives," she said.
Allie Baranowski also criticized ICE for carrying firearms and questioned why agents operate with masks instead of having their faces in open view.
Gary Brinker said he also opposes current deportation practices.
"It's a milestone in what ICE is getting away with and what the federal government is getting away with," Brinker said. "It's one of those points where I hope someday enough people put their foot down to stop it."
Brinker said immigration laws were originally designed to exploit immigrants and that the country benefits from undocumented workers.
"They work for less money, and so we pay lower prices because of them. I think that's one reason prices are going up, because all the people who are replacing [immigrants] want more money, and that's what makes prices go up," he said.
Brinker and Baranowski said they support deporting violent criminals. Morton said it is essential to keep an open mind and avoid being influenced by agendas pushed by either side.
"We need to use common sense. We need to appeal to our own empathy and humanity," she said. "The violence that ICE officers are committing is not right. They need to go through legal channels, do it the appropriate way and not be violent."
