Local Community Asserts: DC is not Arizona Two Days After SB1070 SCOTUS Hearing, DC Community Denounces Immigration Customs Enforcement Roundtable Washington, DC – Two days after the SB1070 SCOTUS hearing that mobilized nearly a thousand pro-civil rights protestors, DC community leaders will hold a press conference outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) roundtable on…
Events in Phoenix, Elsewhere Protest SB1070 and Similar Federal Deportation Programs April 23, 2012. Phoenix, AZ. Groups across the country are preparing for the Supreme Court hearing of the Department of Justice’s suit against SB1070 on Wednesday. The Arizona bill passed in 2010 made the state synonymous with racial profiling and marred its reputation as…
NDLON Calls On Sheriff to Follow Chicago Example, Stop Responding to ICE’s Request for Extra Incarceration of Peaceful Immigrants
04.10.2012 Los Angeles, CA
In response to the Independent report released yesterday that exposes that more people in LA County jail are transferred to Immigration than to state prison, Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network issued the following statement calling on the Sheriff to immediately suspend voluntarily holding peaceful immigrants in extended incarceration at ICE’s request:
OIG Report on Se Communities Deportation Program Heightens Controversy over Failed Program. Advocates Decry report as “window dressing,” and renew calls: “End SCOMM. Don’t Mend it.” 04.06.2012. Washington, DC. Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General issued two reports on the much-maligned “Se Communities” deportation program. The reports, which come after two…
Supreme Court Should Strike Down Arizona Bill, Local March to Call for End to Similar Federal Programs. Who: A Wide Coalition of Organizations When: April 25th. March to begin at 3pm Arizona Time. Where: Opening Rally at Civic Space Park March: Highlighting Phoenix PD, Federal Courthouse, 4th Ave Jail, Wells Fargo Tower, Immigration and Customs…
Groups Demand FBI Address Concerns from Governors and Other High Level State and Local Officials that Program Undermines Public Safety
Today, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and over 80 other civil and immigrant rights organizations sent a letter to the FBI demanding that it end its facilitation of ICE’s Se Communities deportation program (S-Comm).
The letter charges that S-Comm threatens public safety, encourages racial profiling and undermines community policing by turning local police departments into gateways to deportation. Under S-Comm, the FBI takes all fingerprints submitted by local police for criminal background checks and automatically forwards the prints to federal immigration officials, regardless of whether individual has been convicted of a crime or of the severity of the charge.
“The damning report filed in Maricopa County last week had been called for and expected for years. But what the Department of Justice report in East Haven exposes is a national epidemic of civil rights violations that must call into question the federal immigration programs that rely on local police whose enforcement practices are increasingly discriminatory. What else will it take to rethink the strategy of enlisting police as force multipliers in immigration. The recent Department of Justice actions are a warning sign to reverse course on immigration and end programs like Se Communities immediately.”
…
Link to recording of today’s call: http://ndlon.org/docs/2011arpaio.mp3
Phoenix, AZ- Yesterday, the United States Department of Justice released a scathing report, confirming the “discriminatory policing practices” that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has used to terrorize the Latino community of Maricopa County for years and prompting the Department of Homeland Security to terminate the Sheriff’s 287(g) agreement and restrict his access to the controversial S-Comm program,
On a press call today, national and local leaders reacted to the reports findings, commending the investigation as a step towards serving the Latino community with the justice they so long deserve.
DOJ’s announcement is no surprise to the Latino community. Arpaio has a long history of extreme enforcement tactics and discriminatory behavior. Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County Supervisor, saw firsthand the type of suffering in the Latino community inflicted by Arpaio’s abusive practices. “A line in the report that stands out above others is that for the past four years, the Sheriff’s department has treated all Latinos as if they were undocumented. It is a sobering statement that shows how the Sheriff used anti-immigrant sentiment as a pretext to violate the civil rights of our County’s residents. For three years our community has pounded the doors of elected officials to let them know this must stop. My dream is for Sheriff Arpaio to resign or be kicked out of office and for his office to be taken into receivership. Still, we feel relief today because the truth has been told about this Sheriff in a manner that cannot be denied.”
Speakers also lifted up Arpaio’s case as an example of the disastrous consequences of DHS policies that trample on the rights of entire communities.
Salvador Reza, Phoenix Civil Rights Leader whose wrongful arrest was cited in the DOJ report, explained, “We are happy to see Janet Napolitano’s actions yesterday but I’d like to caution that it’s not over. The longer Arpaio is not under receivership or indicted, the longer this will continue as a political football locally and nationally. This should be a wakeup call to DHS and for Sheriffs across the country who are using federal immigration programs to emulate Arpaio.”
Randy Parraz, Co-Founder, President of Citizens for a Better Arizona, added, “Yesterday’s report by the DOJ validates many of the abusive practices and policies that we have been experiencing as Latinos and critics of Sheriff Arpaio. We, Citizens for a Better Arizona, will continue to organize across the county to create the pressure needed to force Sheriff Arpaio to resign.”
According to Arturo Venegas, Director of the Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative, “Every day that Arpaio focused on terrorizing immigrant and Latino communities while serious criminals roamed the streets of Maricopa County made other law enforcement officials’ jobs harder across the nation. The Department of Homeland Security should be commended for limiting its cooperation with Arpaio, but until the racial profiling and aggressive tactics he championed are no longer encouraged by state laws like Alabama’s or tacitly condoned by federal programs like Se Communities, we have not yet eradicated his legacy of fear. Unfortunately, Arpaio has flaunted his unconstitutional tactics with such vigor that, nothing short of a federal consent decree will get him to comply DOJ requests and change his behavior.”
According to Sarahi Uribe, National Campaign Coordinator, National Day Laborer’s Organizing Network, “The DOJ report is what compelled the Department of Homeland Security to do what it should have done on former Arizona Governor Napolitano’s first day on the job as head of DHS. It stripped him of his badge when it comes to immigration enforcement. Now we should learn the lessons from Arizona and deal not just with this Sheriff but with the implications of this report on a national level.”
…
…