COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Council members are making it clear that they disagree with the way the Trump administration is handling undocumented immigrants and refugees.
With a new commission created solely focused on bettering the life of immigrants and refugees, the work of the council in those marginalized communities is more pertinent now than ever.
“I think that it is disruptive to communities, I think it’s disruptive to families, it’s disruptive to our local economy. It is not the way to figure out how we fix a broken system,” said Columbus City Council member Lourdes Barroso de Padilla.
A daughter of Cuban immigrants, council member Barroso de Padilla is outspoken and passionate about the negative effects of mass deportations and ICE raids.
“We are not seeing each other’s humanity and we are not acting as good neighbors to each other. And so these strategies cause panic in communities, even for people who might be okay in terms of their status,” said Barroso de Padilla.
A new Homeland Security decree lets more federal agencies identify and arrest illegal immigrants. That includes the FBI, DEA, ATF and more, allowing ICE agents to raid churches and schools. Because of all the recent attention of the mass deportation efforts on social media, international businesses are being affected negatively because customers are too scared to shop at their establishments
“We already got effects from it. Customers are scared to come in the store. The business is going down. For those people who are posting those things. I appreciate that you guys trying to help, but you guys are affecting other people in other ways, like in a bad way,” said international grocery store manager Mehdi Elkhadib.
Political officials across the state and the country are outspoken against Trump’s immigration policies, saying these efforts will inevitably have a negative impact on our economy.
Here in Columbus, the city council’s new commission on immigrant and refugee affairs will be seated in March to ensure resources are more accessible to the immigrant and refugee communities.