ASHTABULA — Mario Solis Jr. was laughing and joking with his friends the night his worst nightmare began.

Sitting in the passenger seat of a friend’s car, Mario, then 17 years old, could see the flashing red and blue lights of a police cruiser at a drunk-driving checkpoint.

After confirming Mario’s undocumented citizenship, Ashtabula County sheriff’s deputies allegedly detained and interrogated Mario, immigration reform advocate Veronica Dahlberg said.

After contacting the border patrol, the deputies asked Mario where his family lived.

“All they cared about was if he was legal,” Dahlberg said. “Mario committed no crimes and he wasn’t under arrest, but he was interrogated about his family.”

The Solis family claims deputies knocked on their door at 4 a.m. and took the family to the Ashtabula County Jail and then transferred Mario Solis Sr., Jonathan, 11, Angel, 14 and Mario Solis Jr. to a jail in Erie.

Mother Elena Solis was with a neighbor. Leslie Solis, 6, was still asleep in her bed.

“It is important to realize that being out of legal status is not a crime,” Dahlberg said. “It is a civil code violation.”

Still “out of legal status,” the Solis family lives from day to day, scared of being deported back to Mexico at any time.

“We came here for a better life and education for our children so they wouldn’t have to work in the shoe factories in Mexico,” Elena Solis said.

Mario Solis Sr. said he is angry about the situation.

“I know my situation and I know I am not considered legal,” he said. “But there are procedures and ways these things are supposed to be done. I have never before stepped in a jail in my life and I was in jail because I want to stay here and work.”

Dahlberg said Ashtabula County is home to many immigrants and many lack the proper documentation to stay in the country.

“The problem is, so many immigrants simply can’t get the documentation they need; It is impossible. These troubles are the product of a broken immigration system. There is no way for them to be legal,” Dahlberg said.

Dahlberg, the executive director of Hispanic Women of Lake and Ashtabula Counties, along with Kim Whitcroft-Parker and Peggy Wilkinson have formed the Ohio Coalition for Immigrant and Refugees Rights, a grassroots coalition of labor, community and faith organizations working to educate the public and secure the passage of comprehensive immigration reform.

The coalition, the first of its kind in Ohio, hopes immigration reform will help reunite families, stop inhumane immigration enforcement and stop home and workplace raids, create “pathways to citizenship,” by giving undocumented immigrants a way to establish legal citizenship, and remove immigration application backlogs.

In the last few months, more than 100 immigrants in Ashtabula County have been detained or deported, Wilkinson said.

“We have passed through one of the darkest eras for Latinos in this country,” Dahlberg said. “President Bush’s ‘Operation Return to Sender’ rounded up tens of thousands of people and deported many of them. The rise in hate groups is astounding.”

Dahlberg said Ashtabula County residents wouldn’t want fear to shape their communities.

“People are afraid to leave their homes,” Dahlberg said. “Ashtabula County residents don’t want their kids in jail. They don’t want dads to be afraid to go to work and mothers afraid to go to the supermarket. If they knew the horrors, the residents of this county would wonder why are we doing this to people?”

Wilkinson believes immigration reform is a top priority for President Barack Obama.

“But there are more misconceptions about immigration reform than with any other issue,” Wilkinson said. “This country was built by immigrants. The fabric of our society is woven by the work of immigrants. They don’t deserve to be political scapegoats.”

For more information on the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugees Rights, call (440) 964-3372 or email hola@holatoday.org.