CALIFORNIA SENATE PASSES ‘TRUST ACT” TODAY
Vote repudiates Homeland Security’s “Se Communities” program;
Creates Contrast with Arizona’s harsh approach to immigrant residents
SACRAMENTO
The California State Senate passed the TRUST Act today aimed at countering the strict deportation policies implemented by the federal government under its “Se Communities” program. Its sponsors contrast the common-sense tone of the California bill with the harsh law passed in Arizona, much of which was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
After a forthcoming concurrance vote in the California Assembly, the TRUST Act will be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown to sign. The bill responds to and repudiates the state’s forced participation in the program enforced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Securities, which has led to the incarceration and deportation of tens of thousands of undocumented residents in California who have committed no crimes.
DetailsU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program faces novel challenge
We’ve been hearing a lot about how immigration enforcement intersects with local law enforcement. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona requirement that police officers check the immigration status of people they stop for other reasons. Now we’ll hear from our West Side bureau about a suburban Chicago man who got tangled up with immigration enforcement after a arrest. He has filed a suit that offers a novel challenge to one of President Obama’s key immigration-enforcement programs. MITCHELL: There’s no doubt James Makowski of Clarendan Hills did something illegal. In 2010 police caught him with heroin and he pleaded guilty to that. A judge approved him for a state-run boot camp. But that’s not where Makowski ended up. MAKOWSKI: I thought I would be home in 120 days but — then after I get a note back from a counselor, view after I’d asked about when I’d be shipping to boot camp — she said that I was ineligible for boot camp due to an immigration detainer.
DetailsNewly Obtained Documents Reveal Se Communities Program Leads to Deportations of People Who Have Never Been Arrested
July 3, 2012—Today, advocates released emails from the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) that show that ICE’s controversial Se Communities deportation program is sweeping in individuals who have never been criminally arrested. The emails—which were obtained as a result of Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by the National Day Laborer…
DetailsAfter Arizona, a Struggle Continues – NYT Editorial
The Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s immigration law shredded the law’s radical premise — that a state can write its own foreign policy, order impose its own criminal punishments on the undocumented, check set its own enforcement priorities and oblige the federal government to go along. That should be the final warning to Arizona and copycat states like Alabama: stop concocting criminal dragnets for civil violators. It’s not your job and you can’t do it.
DetailsArizona SCOTUS Ruling Frames NY “Se Communities” Debate
NEW YORK – Just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision on Arizona’s controversial immigration law, a new education campaign is being launched today to deal with local fears surrounding enforcement on Long Island of federal immigration rules, particularly the Se Communities immigration program, known as S-com. Ted Hesson, online editor for Long Island Wins, says that for now the portion of the Supreme Court ruling that upholds the “show me your papers law” applies to Arizona police, but his group is concerned because there have been plenty of copycat laws around the nation. “Whereas S-com is sort of de facto authorizing police to act as immigration agents on the local level, this is actually requiring the police who are out there to be doing this as part of their job.” The Supreme Court ruled that the remaining three provisions of Arizona’s immigration law violate the Constitution.
DetailsIs your home state being Arizonified? – UU World
A major reason for holding a Justice GA in Arizona has always been so that participants could learn how to take lessons home to confront anti-immigrant measures wherever they live. Sarahi Uribe At an education session Thursday titled “Confronting Arizonification in Our Own Backyard” Sarahi Uribe, Angie Junck, and the Rev. Craig Roshaven shared strategies for doing just that. Uribe is with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Junck with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Roshaven is director of the UUA’s Witness Ministries staff group. Roshaven noted the UUA is developing a campaign to challenge the federal government’s Se Communities program, which deports many people including some who are arrested for minor law violations.
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