Students protest immigration laws, arrested for trespassing, released

“My name is Omar Gama and if you are watching this, I just got arrested... My name is Erick Gama and if you are watching this, I just got arrested.”

These were statements made by twin brothers and IU juniors Erick and Uriel Omar Gama (who goes by the name Omar), 20,  in two separate YouTube videos that were made prior to their arrest. The videos were posted Monday.

Erick and Omar were arrested with three other people that day in Indianapolis during a protest over immigration bills for allegedly trespassing in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office, said David R. Bursten, first sergeant in the Indiana State Police Public Information Office.

They were trying to stage a sit-in protest.

The other three individuals were Ana Ruiz-Tovar, 23,  Guadalupe Pimentel, 18, and IUPUI student Sayra Perez, 19, Bursten said. All of them were released from jail Tuesday and early Wednesday on $150 bail.

Another female, IUPUI student Idamarie Callazo (who goes by “Ida”), was arrested for allegedly resisting arrest and has also been released from jail Tuesday, Bursten said.
“They came there with the specific plan and desire to be arrested,” Bursten said.

It was a protest of about 40 to 50 people that was organized by a group of students, said Eric Amador an IU senior and member of the Alpha Xi Chapter of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. — Erick and Omar are members of the same fraternity.

It began when the group met inside the Indiana Statehouse and conducted their event in a reserved area. Chairs had been placed for an audience and a stage with a podium set up for people to share their stories.

It was a coming-out event for participants to tell their story as undocumented immigrants and to encourage Gov. Daniels to veto HB 1402, which takes away the right of undocumented immigrants who live in Indiana to pay in-state tuition rates, and SB 590, which penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

“If (HB) 1402 were to go into law, then that means that my tuition would rise to out-of-state and I will have to pay $24,000 a year just to go to school,” Omar said in a YouTube video.

Erick and Omar stood behind a podium and came out about being undocumented students.

Their hometown is Cuernavaca, Morelos in Mexico, according to Omar’s Facebook page. Omar said he and his family moved to Indianapolis, Ind. nine years ago, according to his YouTube video.

Erick said he arrived in the US about 10 years ago.
“That’s how it began,” Amador said. “The beginning of the day was just them telling their stories and how they came up here... what their majors are and what they’ve contributed to society,” Amador said.

Then some of the protestors moved in front of Gov. Daniels’ office holding signs and sat down by the doors to his office, Amador said.

“We started saying, ‘education, no deportation,’” he said. “At that moment, we were getting louder, and the police started to gather around us.”

One police officer tried to get between the group and the doors of Gov. Daniels’ office and accidentally ran into on of the female protestors, Amador said. The woman, “Ida”, got up and the officer interpreted it as though she was going to break into the office.

She then allegedly resisted arrest. The officer then told her to get on the ground and place her hands behind her head. The officer then placed handcuffs on her wrists behind her back, Amador said. She was then taken into custody.

After that, the group moved about five feet back from the doors of Gov. Daniels’ office and continued their chants.

At that time, a group of five people departed from the group to change into their graduation caps and gowns. The five included Erick and Omar.

“At about 4:15 p.m., our sit ins had gotten into the lobby area of his (Daniels) office,” Amador said.

They sat on the floor in a circle and linked arms. They had their backs to each other and each of them faced outside of the circle.

“They were told to leave but they said they wouldn’t until they had a chance to speak to Gov. Mitch Daniels,” Amador said.

The protestors were asked three times in about a 15 to 20 minute period to leave.
“They had the right to be there, but not the right to interfere with other people,” Bursten said.

The students never stepped into Gov. Daniels’ office, Amador said. They conducted their sit-in protest in the lobby area outside of Daniels’ office.

Amador was then told that the students had been taken outside of the Statehouse. When they went to see what was going on, Amador saw his fraternity brothers along with three others taken to a police van. Indiana State Police took them into custody.
While in jail, until they were released, the five protesters conducted a hunger strike, Figueroa said. 

“My concerns are for the students,” Dean of Students Harold “Pete” Goldsmith said of the protests in a phone interview. Goldsmith said he was notified of the arrests Wednesday.

Gov. Daniels signed both HB 1402 and SB 590 into
law Tuesday.

According to The Indianapolis Star, the five protesters are scheduled to go to a court hearing June 14 in Indianapolis.

— Zach Ammerman contributed to this report.