We Are Sara Medrano

Racial profiled. Due process rights violated. Protecting her community.

These are the reasons why Sara Medrano and the RISE Coalition of Western Maryland brought a lawsuit against Frederick County Sheriff Jenkins and other Frederick officials seeking to stop unconstitutional policing against Latinx/e people.

TRANSCRIPT

In English:

My name is Sara Medrano. On July 7, 2018, the police stopped me in Frederick and I have never forgotten that day. I remember leaving the house at seven in the evening with my daughter and two grandchildren. There was sunlight outside, but I still drove with my headlights on. There wasn’t much traffic. Everything was calm in the streets. Then while I was driving on route 15, I noticed that a police officer was following me. I didn’t do anything wrong.  I had only been driving safely without breaking any laws.

And still, what felt like forever, the police car followed me. And then, the lights turned on and I heard the sirens, signaling me to pull over. When I saw those red and blue lights, I stopped at the side of the road, but left the car engine on. My heart was beating fast. In that moment, I felt panicky for being stopped by police without cause.  An officer came out of the car, dressed in a brown uniform with a gun on his belt. He approached and asked for my license and registration, never once introducing himself. He didn’t explain why he stopped me and he talked to me in English. I’m still learning English, so I couldn’t understand him very well. Then, I asked for a police officer that speaks Spanish. He didn’t say anything. He strolled back to his car with my license and registration, while I waited in mine with my daughter and grandchildren.

I waited for ten minutes, when another police officer arrived in a different car. This new police officer approached and spoke to me in Spanish. He asked if I knew why the police stopped me. I said that I didn’t know. He told me that I had a burned out tail light. But before I could ask whether it was the right or the left, he asked where I was from.

I told him that I have lived in Frederick for more than 13 years. He watched me closely and finally asked, “Are you a citizen or resident?” I didn’t respond.

He told me I had an immigration problem so I should turn the engine off because I would be there for a while, until immigration could come and get me. I really thought that this was it, and that I would be taken away from my family and deported from the United States. I turned off the car, and the police officer asked for the identification of the person at my side, my daughter. I could not imagine why this happening to me, and I would have never thought that they would ask my daughter for her identification as well. I felt extremely sad, emotional, and worried for my daughter. I couldn’t even breath when she, with a trembling hand, gave him her identification card.

The police officer returned to his car and I stayed in mine. I waited. Terrified. With a great pain in my chest, I was so scared, thinking this stop would be the last moment I would have with my grandchildren and daughter.

They detained me for almost an hour. One of the police officers came close to my side of the car and gave me “un aviso” or a warning about the burned out tail light. He didn’t explain this warning, instead he said immigration wasn’t answering his calls and that I needed a lawyer because I had a deportation order.

We were finally able to leave, after almost an hour of waiting, not knowing whether immigration would take me away or not. We drove away and when I finally arrived at the house, my daughter and I checked the lights to see if one of them was burned out. Both tail lights were turning on normally. No other reason was possible for that police stop other than how I look. This is the only reason I can think of.

Before this experience, I had never been stopped by police. My car lights work fine and still work fine, and no other police officer has stopped me since, for anything.

What happened to me was unjust. I was obeying the law and living peacefully here. Frederick is my home, and I want to feel safe in my home.

Now, I am fearful and anxious every day, unsure whether I might be pulled over again and taken away from my family. I never stop thinking about my family, neighbors, and the people in my community that could suddenly go through what I went through.

But that is exactly why I must support and help my community. I am not suing the police because of this deportation order. I am suing the police because what happened to me was not right, and the police should not be able to pull people over, detain them, and scare them because of their physical appearances, or for the language they speak. Frederick is better than that. People should feel safe in their community, especially from those who are sworn to protect us.