NDLON, Law Enforcement, Attorneys and Affected Community Interviews and Visuals Available Upon Request.
(Los Angeles, Washington DC) In the growing groundswell of opposition, the New York Times echoed the call of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and others to end the “Se Communities” (S-Comm) program in an editorial published today. The Times stated, S-Comm has “made Republican hard-liners happy by bolstering the noxious argument that all undocumented immigrants are mere criminals, deportees-in-waiting. This is a failure of decency and good sense. It merely punishes and does nothing to actually come to grips with the problem of illegal immigration.”
Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution calling for the ability to opt-out of S-Comm and Oakland voted to support the California TRUST ACT, legislation meant to the state’s participation in the program. Los Angeles City Councilmember Reyes said, “We need to end this ugliness, the meanness of federal policies that are punitive to vulnerable people. This is not the America we want.”
Pablo Alvarado, Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, commented, “”The tide is turning on S-Comm. A chorus of opposition to the program is growing louder as the migrant rights movement demands a reversal of politics that criminalize immigrants. It is clear S-Comm threatens community safety, it results in gross civil rights violations, and it undermines efforts to reform immigration laws. What started as an effort to uncover the truth about S-Comm has evolved into a consensus view that the program should be scrapped all together. S-Comm has come to symbolize the President’s broken promises on immigration reform. The fact is that it has not yet been frozen is now being viewed as a betrayal.”
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) is a plaintiff with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in an on-going FOIA lawsuit against DHS/ICE for access to documents related to the Se Communities Program. NDLON plays a central role in California advocacy for the TRUST Act and coordinates the national Turning the Tide campaign….
