FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15th, 2019
Contact: Viridiana Vidal, 702-206-2110, vvidal@ndlon.org

Press Conference: Trial Of ICE’s Deportation Dragnet “S-COMM” Ending Today

“Automated arrests” have been used to request the arrests of more than 2 million individuals

Wed, May 15th at 4:00 PM
350 W 1st St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
** Come at 3:00 pm to hear closing arguments **

Los Angeles, CA.- After years of constitutional violations committed by ICE, this week, ICE’s deportation dragnet itself was on trial. Gonzalez v. ICE began on Tuesday (05/07/2019) in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit challenged the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) unconstitutional practice of asking local law enforcement to incarcerate individuals based on nothing more than incomplete and error-ridden database information.

Today, the landmark class-action lawsuit is coming to an end and our community will stand together to send a strong message against “S-COMM,” during a press conference and action. After the trial, you will hear from the lawyers at the forefront of this lawsuit, immigration activist and from community members.

Background:

Since 2008, ICE has requested the arrest of more than 2 million people nationwide. The lawsuit challenges the ICE detainers issued by agents reviewing nothing more than a set of inaccurate databases in a federal building in Laguna Niguel where detainers are issued for 42 states. These agents neither speak to the individuals nor review their immigration files, yet they have been given the power — at the click of a button and in defiance of the 4th Amendment — to have people arrested and jailed.

The Plaintiff class includes thousands of individuals who are currently subject to ICE’s unlawful detainer requests. They are represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC).

###