| The Sacramento Bee End ICE’s hold on law enforcement agencies April 13, 2012 By Julia Harumi Mass By giving officers an incentive to arrest “foreign-looking” individuals for minor infractions or no reason at all, S-Comm undermines the Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection and encourages racial profiling. La Opinion En California, donde más de un cuarto de la población del estado nació en otro país y más de 40% de la población del estado está formada por inmigrantes y sus hijos, debemos dejar que la policía sea policía, en vez de convertirlos en agentes de inmigración. The Sacramento Bee Se Communities erodes public safety because it deters witnesses and victims of crime from contacting or collaborating with local police for fear of deportation… The Trust Act, Assembly Bill 1081, will create a bright line between police and immigration authorities and could become a model for states looking to modify the impact of the Se Communities program. U-T San Diego California can do better. We can focus our law enforcement resources on serious criminals, not on mothers and fathers simply trying to make a better life for their kids. Fox News Latino Via the inaccurately named Se Communities program, federal immigration officials have asked local jails to lengthen stays for people suspected of violating the immigration code — and localities must pick up the tab. As a result, valuable local police resources are distracted from combating crime and innocent immigrants who are not a public safety threat are caught in the web of poorly designed enforcement programs. Maldef The Huffington Post If the possibility of deportation is increased with SCOMM, fewer unauthorized immigrants and their legal families will go out on a limb to help police solve real crime. The TRUST Act limits the growing distrust between immigrants and police. San Francisco Examiner The misconception is that Se Communities detainer requests from ICE somehow carry the force of federal law. This is what Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca wants people to believe. Although The Examiner rightly criticized the anti-immigrant, anti-minority practices of Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it didn’t seem to realize that California also has lawmen who seem to want to follow in Arpaio’s footsteps.
There is a significant and immediate step Gov. Jerry Brown of California can take to protect community safety and civil liberties in his state. He can sign the TRUST Act.
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Huffington Post Today we join countless law enforcement leaders, mayors, and legal scholars who already have lent their support to the TRUST Act . We encourage you to sign the bill that has been presented to you by the legislature and to continue California’s proud tradition of being a leader on smart and sensible policy solutions. MomsRising.Org Many immigrant mothers in the US are being cruelly and forcefully torn away from their children. As a mom, I am appalled by what the Federal “Se Communities” (S-Comm) deportation program is doing to parents and children across this country. The Hill – Congress Blog The TRUST Act alleviates a serious budget burden for California taxpayers and local law enforcement. California police departments bear over $65 million a year in unreimbursed immigration hold costs. The Huffington Post John Morton, the director of U.S. Immigrations and Enforcement (ICE), has suggested that policies that restrict compliance with immigration detainers “may” violate federal law. If he thinks this is true of the TRUST Act, a bill that now sits on Governor Brown’s desk, all I can say is this: Yes, and pigs “may” fly. The Sacramento Bee When I hear about injustices like the near-deportation of the “tamale lady,” my heart sinks. I’m relieved common sense eventually prevailed in her case, but sadly, many more immigrant Californians are not so fortunate. Vista News “Too many men and women who are not guilty of any crime have been caught in the web of a program meant to help our nation prioritize deportations. … the real story of why we need the Trust Act lies in its human cost to decent men and women pushed out of our country for little more than trying to make ends meet.” Rainbox Push New York Times The Trust Act is important. It’s not, by itself, going to solve a grossly dysfunctional national immigration system. It’s just one state trying to be level-headed and proportionate about who gets deported, which families get split up, and which policing strategies are smartest, most effective and most humane. Politic365.com California has devoted too many scarce resources to this federal program that does more harm than good. The roughly $65 million dollars the state has spent to imprison immigrants takes money away from more resourceful ways to spend taxpayer dollars. Money wasted on Se Communities would pay the salaries of more than 1,400 teachers or put more than 5,000 students through their first year at any University of California campus. Huffington Post Religious Voices Our religious traditions call upon us to recognize the humanity and equality of all people. The importance of fairness is enshrined in the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Yet inhumane detentions of immigrants in local jails have put those values at risk. The TRUST Act would uphold these core principles. LA Times Last week, a court ruling allowed Arizona to implement a shameful part of its immigration law, unleashing profiling and discrimination across that state. Meanwhile, a federal deportation program — the misnamed Se Communities — that mostly sweeps up the innocent and those with minor convictions is hurting our immigrant brothers and sisters across the country. But if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the Trust Act, which the Legislature passed and sent to him, this month would instead be a turning point. Pacific Sun The Marin County Board of Supervisors is urging Gov. Brown to put his trust in the “Trust Act,” a law approved by the state legislature that would restrict state law enforcement officials from abiding by a federal program to detain illegal-immigration suspects. CNN Sitting on the Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk is the most important piece of legislation for immigrant communities this year. By signing the bill, called the TRUST Act, Brown can prevent the separation of thousands of families, establish an alternative to Arizona’s approach and send a powerful message to the nation: In a state built and replenished by generations of immigrants, fairness and equality matter. ABC/Univision Despite the complaints of some sheriffs who would prefer California to look more like Jan Brewer’s Arizona, we have the chance to move the state forward.
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