Immigration detentions in the Yakima Valley saw an uptick over the Christmas holiday, and now activists are calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart for what they see as the corporation’s complicity in allowing federal authorities to detain immigrants on their property. Yeimi Ortiz is a volunteer with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network and a member of a rapid response team that tries to make contact with migrants who are being detained to offer them and their families support and basid legal resources. Over the last week she has filmed multiple detentions, like the arrest of a man at the Wal-Mart on East Chestnut Ave on Christmas Eve, as he was putting groceries in his vehicle. You can watch that video above. Now she and others are calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart to protest the corporation’s cooperation with federal immigration actions and in solidarity with peaceful migrants who are being targeted. She said not only is Wal-Mart management aiding ICE and Homeland Security in hunting down their own customers, but they’re also trying to make it harder for her and her group to make contact with immigrants. “Wal-Mart tried to trespass us and let ICE do their thing,” she said. So on Sunday, Dec. 28 from noon to 3 pm she and others gathered to protest Wal-Mart. Holding signs with phrases like “Fuck ICE” and “Undocumented Hands Feed You” a group of about 25 people shouted as passers by to avoid shopping at the big box store in solidarity. Local activist Ezquiel Morfin livestreamed on Facebook from the protest. Ezequiel Morfin Jr. at the protest on Dec. 28. “We deserve dignity. We deserve respect,” he said. According to Ortiz, the man that was detained in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Christmas Eve was in the US on asylum, had no criminal history and possessed a valid work permit. She said prior to the Wal-Mart arrest on Christmas Eve another man was detained by the same Homeland Security agents at a Domino’s pizza restaurant in Yakima. On Christmas day federal agents broke a man’s vehicle window and dragged him from his vehicle, and the day after Christmas she filmed another arrest in the Lowe’s Hardware parking lot on Longfibre Road. On Dec. 23 she filmed HSI agents arresting an individual on Yakima County Jail property, after he had been released by county authorities. Trivia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security’s Secretary for Public Affairs, praised the immigration enforcement efforts in the majority Hispanic city, telling the Yakima Herald Republic these actions are a “Christmas gift” for American families. “We are thankful for our law enforcement who delivered the best Christmas gift for American families this holiday season: safer communities,” she said. But to Ortiz HSI and ICE agents are nothing more than human traffickers. They make money for separating families and traumatizing children. So in January of this year – the same month President Donald Trump took office for his second term – she started her volunteer work helping families who have been impacted by immigration enforcement actions in January. Then in September her husband was detained and deported. “I feel like they might have come after my husband because of what I do,” she said. She said Federal agents staked out her house in the early morning hours and waited for her husband to emerge to go to work. “When my husband left to go to work they pulled him over and arrested him,” she said. “They took him to Yakima County Jail first. Without a warrant, without charges filed.” She said the Feds then went to Yakima County Prosecutor Joesph Brusic and asked him to charge her husband with “alien presence,” which he refused to do. So Yakima County Jail released him and he was immediately re-arrested in the parking garage and transported to ICE’s Tacoma facility. Throughout the ordeal Ortiz has remained defiant in the face of what she sees as systemic oppression carried out by thugs, who are usually hiding behind masks. “They laugh about it,” she said. “They get pleasure out of this.” She said if people want to help her and her mission to fight back, the Immigrant Response Network manages a community fund that puts money on detainees’ commissary accounts and provides gas and grocery cards to their families. They also help the families of those deported and detained navigate next steps and fill in other gaps as needed. For the family of the man arrested on Yakima County Courthouse property on Dec. 23, that meant ensuring there were some gifts under the tree for his kids this Christmas. For more information on the Yakima Immigrant Response Network and the community fund they manage, you can connect with Ortiz on Facebook here. Thanks for reading Dominick Bonny Reports! This post is public so feel free to share it.Share