(Toledo, OH) Deportation proceedings begin today for detainees from a recent raid at an Erie County garden center.
Bond hearings will be held in immigration courtrooms in Detroit for more than 100 people still being held in detention. The undocumented immigrants were rounded up by federal ICE agents at the Corso's lawn and garden center last month.
Toledo-based Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) formed a deportation defense team to ensure the detainees get their due process rights, alleging the migrant farm workers won't be able to afford cash bonds expected in the thousands of dollars.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur did secure the release of three female detainees-- each of them have children who are U.S. citizens. They'll be on home confinement and electronic monitoring until their bond hearings.
That ABLE deportation defense team of ten attorneys and paralegals who are criss-crossing northern Ohio and Michigan to speak with detainees from separate immigration raids in Sandusky and Salem. Some pro-bono lawyers are joining the effort, but money is fast becoming an issue.
ABLE has raised more than $13,000 through a GoFundMe account and its Immigration Advocacy Project on its website.
Meantime, Latino advocacy group HOLA-Ohio has raised $50,000 for a detainee bond-- more than $25,000 in individual GoFundMe contributions to match an anonymous donor.
The hope is to post bond for some of the migrant farm worker detainees to be reunited with their families in Norwalk, Willard, and Sandusky. Those bond hearings begin today in Detroit.