Waterloo protest: Defend the Fourth on the Fourth
Picketers hit downtown streets for immigration justice
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
—Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
WATERLOO — The Fourth is about the Fourth.
That’ s the message a corps of protesters tried to tell their friends and neighbors Tuesday night in downtown Waterloo.
They gathered three days before our nation’s 249th birthday, walking downtown streets to proclaim, in essence, that the Fourth of July is about the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, protecting individuals against unreasonable search and seizure. And about the Fifth Amendment, guaranteeing due process of law. And about the First, protecting free speech, assembly and press. And the other amendments amplifying the “inalienable rights” proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.
Many of those assembled wonder if their government is listening amid its stepped-up immigration enforcement and border security measures. Proponents of those measures say they are long overdue. Others, like those who marched in Waterloo Tuesday night, say it’s gone too far and represents unconstitutional governmental overreach.
They fear the vise of ICE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — is tightening indiscriminately around a vulnerable immigrant population — and ultimately around the constitutional protections of everyone.
The Waterloo Catholic Hispanic Ministry sponsored Tuesday’s march and subsequent rally at Lincoln Park in support of immigrants and refugees.
Though reportedly smaller in number compared to a similar event in May, at least a couple hundred persons braved the last hot gasps of a stifling summer heatwave in the late evening sunset to make their views known. Streets on the march route were largely vacant and quiet except for the periodic chants of the protesters.
Many at the rally, featuring speakers and performers, were worried about what comes next. They fear the disturbances seen in places like Los Angeles, where federal troops were deployed, and the sudden detention of individuals as close as Chicago and the Twin Cities, could come to Iowa and Waterloo.
That concerns the Catholic priest who was an organizer of the protest, the Rev. Nils Hernandez, pastor of Queen of Peace Parish downtown and head of Waterloo’s Catholic Hispanic ministry. He escaped religious and political persecution in his native Nicaragua decades ago under the regime of Marxist leader Daniel Ortega.
“From my own personal experience of religious persecution back in my homeland, Nicaragua, I feel now as an immigrant and a citizen, I am persecuted for defending my Christian beliefs,” Hernandez said. He fears federal agents will have permission to conduct a raid here “any time they feel like coming.”
He joined a seminary colleague, Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernadino, Calif., in condemning ICE agents showing up on the property of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernadino and using a church parking lot to detain individuals, as was reported in the San Bernadino County Sun newspaper.
”What happened in the Diocese of San Bernadino, California may happen here in Waterloo or in any other places around the country,” Hernandez said. “I am feeling at risk of being arrested for speaking against these abuses against the dignity of the children of God.” He cited the Book of Matthew in the Bible: “What you did unto others, you did unto me,” as central to his beliefs.
“Jesus will be my judge, and He is the only King of Kings.” Hernandez said. “I am not going to kiss any ring. Only will I bow before Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.”
Also attending Tuesday’s rally was the Rev. Larry Stumme, a retired longtime Denver, Iowa attorney and pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls. He marched 60 years ago with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. that was met with violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
“I’m just really concerned,” Stumme said. Referring to published maps of large ICE raids around the country, he noted, “There hasn’t been one in Iowa. There was one in Omaha.” But he said the new budget bill adopted by the U.S. Senate and awaiting action in the House includes substantial increases in ICE funding and staffing.
“We’re going to see what happened in California. Marshalltown, Waterloo, Council Bluffs, Denison —there’s large populations here that could be moved,” Stumme said.
At the rally, Stumme handed out cards with a passage from the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament of the Evangelical Heritage Version of the Bible:
”You shall treat the alien who resides with you as a fellow citizen. You shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”
Congress has not passed significant immigration reform legislation since 1986. That legislation did not provide a legal way for low-skilled workers to enter the United States. According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C, about 8.3 million workers in the U.S. in 2022 were unauthorized immigrants, an increase from 7.4 million in 2019 and roughly matching previous highs in 2009 and 2011.
Pew researchers also report the total lawful immigrant population grew from 24.1 million in 2000 to 36.9 million in 2022, and that 49 percent of all immigrants in America are naturalized U.S. citizens. Pew estimates there are 50,000 unauthorized residents in Iowa, roughly 2 percent of the state’s population.
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed here. Clink on their individual links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, please support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription. Thank you.
Thanks, Pat, — as most of us know —Faith provided moral foundation for civil rights through Black churches, clergy from many denominationsand King's Christian nonviolence. Religious leaders connected Vietnam opposition to social justice, though.
Churches served as organizing centers while religious convictions challenged both domestic inequality and foreign war.
I remember it was the faith community who helped provide support and protection for the families of the men arrested during the Postville ICE raid.
Good reporting, Pat. And it was especially appropriate to cite the Fourth Amendment which is just as relevant today as when it was written two and a half centuries ago.