This group is helping immigrants learn their rights and what to do in an emergency. The whole community benefits if everyone knows they can get help from the police department. DP
LOCAL LEADERS SEEK DISTANCE FROM FEDS
By Kim Vo, Mercury News
mercurynews.com: Hoping to strengthen ties with the immigrant community, local political, law enforcement and religious leaders will begin visiting churches to teach immigrants about their rights and assure them that local cities and counties are not helping the federal government conduct deportation raids.
A community forum will be held next month at St. Patrick Proto-Cathedral in San Jose, a Catholic church attended by speakers of English, Spanish and Vietnamese, said Ruby Ramirez, an organizer with the religious consortium known as PACT, or People Acting in Community Together.
St. Maria Goretti and Most Holy Trinity - both Catholic churches in San Jose - will also hold forums.
The details, announced at a Thursday news conference, still are in flux as a countywide task force reviews strategies used by other communities.
Some communities, for instance, have pro bono attorneys advise people individually, while others have invited speakers to discuss civil rights, such as the right to bar federal agents from entering their home without a search warrant.
Residents and leaders stressed that the community would be safer if everyone - including illegal immigrants - believed they could call the police.
"If my Latino neighbors are afraid to go to the police," said San Jose resident and PACT member Susan Price-Jang, "it makes my family less safe."
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