Poor People’s Campaign Comes to Orange County

Inspired by the civil-rights movement, the Poor People’s Campaign, on Thursday, April 11, brought its “Truth and Poverty Tour” to four stops across Orange County “to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality,” according to the meetup.com about page of the Orange County Poor People’s Campaign.

On the second stop of the Orange County Poor People’s Campaign, a crowd of about two dozen people, on Thursday, April 11, gathered to hear speakers across the street of the Theo Lacey Facility in Orange, which houses detainees for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Photo by Barry Saks

The second stop was across the street of the Theo Lacey Facility, which houses detention centers for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The public leader of the OCPPC, Lisa Pedersen, who characterizes herself as “a community activist for human rights and social justice,” also on the same meetup.com site, introduced Jan Meslin.  Meslin, who helped, in 1984, found the Friends for Orange County Detainees, which visits detained immigrants, emceed.

In her introduction, Meslin, said, “There are several thousand men right now, right across the street who are in maximum security prison…. Each of these men has a story, each of these men has a family… a lot of them have lost their jobs, their apartments and they could be out here thriving…. A little more than 500 are there simply because they don’t have proper documents.”

Jan Meslin, who is from Freedom for Immigrants, addresses, on Thursday, April 11, the crowd gathered across the street from the Theo Lacey ICE detention center in Orange at the second stop of the Orange County Poor People’s Campaign.

Meslin, who is now the director of social change development for Freedom for Immigrants, introduced Roberto Herrera as a Community Engagement Coordinator for the Resilience Orange County, which according to its website, is “a youth-oriented institution that works towards social-systemic transformation while promoting healing, trauma-informed and culturally relevant practices that are inclusive of all members of the community.”  Meslin said, “Roberto (Herrera) has worked to advance and defend the rights of immigrants and the undocumented community in Orange County, specifically those most marginalized, including the LGBTQ community, those with past criminal convictions, overly-criminalized youth and people of color.”

Herrera said, “The (California) Attorney General (Xavier Becerra) in February of this year released a report detailing the conditions inside this detention center.  What confirmed was what we already know, the egregious conditions inside.”  He added that this center doesn’t have a “proper grievance process.”  If detainees are “experiencing excess force by the sheriffs,” the detainees have no recourse because the grievances are not collected.

Carlos Alexander Hidalgo, who had been detained at ICE detention centers in Adelando and the Theo Lacey in Orange, speaks, Thursday, April 11, across the street of  Theo Lacey about his incarceration and becoming an immigrant-rights activist; Photo by Barry Saks

After Herrera spoke, Meslin introduced Carlos Alexander Hidalgo and said she met him after he had been transferred from the Adelanto ICE detention center to Theo Lacey in retaliation to a hunger strike he started.

“He was born in El Salvador in 1967, came to the U.S. when he was 11-years old, he graduated from Bell Gardens High School (in Los Angeles County) and he made a life, got married, he had some children, he worked, and found himself in some legal trouble…served a little bit of time and instead of going on parole as if he were a U.S. citizen, he found himself in the detention-deportation system….He was able to get bonds and be released,” Meslin said.

Hidalgo, who is on the leadership council of Freedom for Immigrants, said, “The last five years with all that has happened to me, I’ve become an immigration activist.…I lost custody to my kids just because I couldn’t make it to court, (I lost) my business….I’m going to be the thorn in their eyes.”

After Hidalgo spoke, the Rev. Michelle Harris-Gloyer of the First Christian Church of Orange, Disciples of Christ, led the crowd in the song, “Someone is Hurting My Brother” and the second, which the reverend characterized as a mantra, “I am not Afraid.”

Tags: Carlos Alexander Hidalgo, Freedom for Immigrants, ICE, Jan Meslin, Lisa Pedersen, Orange County, Poor People's Campaign, Theo Lacey Detention Center