Dignity Not Detention - Preserving Human Rights & Restoring Justice

ACLU of Georgia Releases Report on Immigration Detention in Georgia

Findings raise serious concerns about violations of detainees’ human and constitutional rights

ATLANTA – The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Georgia today released a comprehensive report on conditions of detention for immigrants in Georgia titled: “Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia.”  The report covers the four immigration detention facilities in Georgia, which include the largest immigration detention center in the country, the Stewart Detention Center, as well as the North Georgia Detention Center, Irwin County Detention Center, and Atlanta City Detention Center.  Three of the facilities are operated by corporations.

Read more…

Seth Freed Wessler, Applied Research Center/Colorlines.com joins Thom Hartmann

Photos and text reposted from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles

Click to view slideshow.

• Yearly deportation quotas blinds ICE into tearing families apart in spite of humane options available, especially when US-born children or sick loved ones are involved and community ties are strong.
• Two women plead ICE to help them stay with their US-born children this Mother’s Day. They represent no threat to society and they are honest, hard-working community members.

Los Angeles – Thousands upon thousands of US-born citizens will spend this Mother’s Day facing an uncertain future and a broken family. According to a March Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report, 46,486 parents of US-born citizens were deported from the United States during the first half of 2011. In contrast, the New York Times reports that in the decade between 1998 and 2007, nearly 100,000 such parents were deported. An estimated 4 million US-born children have a least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant.

In a 2006 report to Congress ICE clarified that “our priority mission — and our greatest challenge — is to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States” adding that “the mission of ICE is to protect America and uphold public safety by targeting the people, money and materials that support terrorist and criminal activities.” In August of 2011, ICE Director John Morton and the White House announced deportation prioritization guidelines (Prosecutorial Discretion or PD) to apply when ICE rules on a case. Thus far, ICE has complied miserably with the guidelines and out of a possible 53,000 reviews being conducted in Los Angeles alone, fewer than 220 people have received PD.

This week, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) convened a meeting of the Family Unity Advisory Group in Chicago which parallels efforts across the nation. In Los Angeles, the Family Unity Commission has been looking into specific deportation cases, meritorious of PD, but denied by ICE based on inconsistent, often erratic rationale.

On May 9,  Two women who are facing immediate deportation and their US-born children, immigration attorney Jessica Dominguez, and CHIRLA representatives. ICE has been charged by the White House to apply Prosecutorial Discretion (PD) on deportation cases it deems “low priority”. On Mother’s Day, two families plead to stay together and ask ICE to stop the tearing apart of a loving family.

UPDATE:  Late on Wednesday, ICE informed media outlets that one of the moms, Maria, could remain in the country.  As to Carmen, ICE remains convinced they are acting according to the law and will see to it that she leaves the US by June 1.

Read more:

• Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM): Broken Immigration Laws Snub a Mother’s Love

Reposted from Sisters of Mercy blog “Connect with Mercy“:

Last week, Sister JoAnn Persch testified at the Illinois House of Representatives, advocating for lawmakers to block the construction of a private detention center in Crete, Illinois. The House passed SB1064 which would prevent counties from hiring private firms to run detention centers. Here are her words.

TESTIMONY FOR THE ILLINOIS HOUSE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

May 2, 2012

Good morning.  My name is Sister JoAnn Persch and I am a Sister of Mercy.  I along with my colleague, Sister Pat Murphy, because of our ministry, have had the opportunity to talk with immigrant detainees who have been held in many jails, prisons, and detention centers.  We have learned that people are often mistreated in these facilities.  Also, we have learned that each man and woman is a human person with his or her own story.  Each is a person with human rights and civil rights which often are violated through their treatment in the facilities.  Each person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We cannot bear the thought that a private company could be making profits from keeping people locked up – yet that is what CCA and other companies do.

Through our ministry we belong to three national networks who do work with immigrant detainees.  As a part of these networks we are always proud to be from Illinois because our legislators have passed humane laws regarding immigration.  We are envied because other States are passing inhumane laws.  And, as part of these networks we have heard how people are treated in private centers across the country.  There is often insufficient and non-nutritious food.  We have heard about people not receiving medical care and in numbers of incidents this has resulted in death.  All of these incidents are well documented.

In these private centers we have heard that the staff is also not treated well.  There is lack of training or adequate supervision, and so the officers often result in violence and abuse in the handling of the detainees.  Many of us have seen a video from Idaho showing an immigrant detainee being beaten while the correctional officers stand by and watch.

This is NOT what we want in Crete or anywhere else in Illinois or in our country.  No one should profit from human misery.  We need to stop CCA and companies like them from coming to Illinois.

I want to thank Senator Munoz and Representatives Acevedo and Hernandez for their leadership on this issue.  I want to thank them for joining with us in telling CCA to

GO AWAY.

Thank you!

by Lena Graber, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild

A week ago the state of Connecticut released its first inmate who was subject to an ICE hold request (also called ICE detainer).  Rather than submit to ICE’s request and hold the inmate an extra 48 hours for ICE to come take custody, the state let him go when his sentence was finished, as they would any other inmate who had served their time.

Connecticut is the first state to institute a policy against holding people in for ICE, although a number of cities and counties have enacted such rules.  From Cook County, IL, to Santa Clara County, CA, to Taos, New Mexico, communities have established policies against ICE hold requests to protect equal rights for the immigrant community and prevent deportations. 

In support of these policies, the National Immigration Project, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the Immigrant Defense Project, the Washington Defenders Association, and the National Immigration Law Center have produced a new resource for organizers and advocates to prevent deportations in our communities: The All-in-One Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests.  The All-in-One Guide has three parts: Staging Your Campaign – a sort of overview and organizing section; The Basics on Police-ICE Collusion – which digs into the complex relationships between ICE and the criminal justice system; andInto the Weeds – which provides more detailed legal and policy analysis about ICE hold requests.

In addition, The All-in-One Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests has six appendices with collected materials from ongoing and successful campaigns.  The appendices compile fact sheets oriented toward policy makers; sample information requests and questions for law enforcement; editorials and talking points; communications from public officials discussing ICE hold requests and Secure Communities; legal analyses of the authority for holding immigrants for ICE to pick up; and examples of legislation or administrative policies enacted or in the works.

The Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests is a manual for communities to understand how immigration enforcement works, and to engage with local law enforcement and policy-makers to pass laws and policies against hold requests.  When someone is booked into a local jail, on any charges, ICE issues a hold request to that jail, asking to keep the person locked up for an extra 48 hours so that ICE can come get them and deport them.  These hold requests are the functional tool that underlies Secure Communities, 287(g), and the Criminal Alien Program.  If communities refuse to submit to ICE hold requests, then immigrants who are released from jail are able to go back home to their families, instead of being snatched away to immigration detention and deportation.  The Guide provides information and advice for organizers and communities to understand the links between local law enforcement and ICE and to change those relationships.

“A few communities have taken a strong stance against ICE holds, and we are collaborating with people around the country to replicate these efforts,” said Lena Graber, author and Soros Justice Fellow at the National Immigration Project.  “Beyond local policies, state laws are the next step.”

For more information, contact:

• Springfield:  Fred Tsao, 773.251.7476 (mobile) or ftsao@icirr.og
• Chicago: Monica Trevino, 773.573.8667 (mobile) or mtrevino@icirr.org

[On May 2], by a vote of 7 to 4, the House Executive Committee passed SB 1064, legislation that would prevent state and local governments from contracting with private companies to run detention facilities.  The following is a statement by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR):

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) joins with Crete residents and other leaders in applauding the Illinois House Executive Committee for taking a clear stand against privatized detention.  Today, the committee passed and sent to the House floor SB 1064, which would block state and local governments from contracting with companies like the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to run detention facilities in Illinois.  In passing SB 1064, the executive committee sent a clear message to CCA and other private prison companies that they are not welcome in Illinois.

CCA , the nation’s largest and most notorious private prison operator, has a long and sad history of neglect, abuse, and mistreatment.  At least 24 immigrant detainees have died in CCA facilities, many from lack of medical care for conditions that could have been treated.  Just last year CCA settled a lawsuit that alleged that in one Idaho prison it ran a “gladiator school” that used “Hunger Games”- like violence and intimidation to control the inmates.  CCA now wants to build a new detention facility in the south Chicago suburb of Crete to house as many as 788 federal immigration detainees.

Illinois law already bars the State and local governments from contracting with private companies to run correctional facilities. Illinois understands that jailing people is a “uniquely governmental function,” and that bringing profit motives into detention leads to mismanagement and abuse.  But existing law does not cover facilities like Crete, which involve civil detention.  SB 1064 would close this loophole.

Though the committee vote was clearly a victory for Crete and Illinois residents, the bill still needs approval from the full House before it can be enacted.  ICIRR urges Illinois State Representatives to vote YES on SB 1064 and stand against privatizing detention.

 The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society. For more information, visit www.icirr.org.

Written by Karina Wilkinson:

In late April 2010, New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees and NYU IRC  issued a comprehensive report, Locked Up but Not Forgotten:  Opening Access to Family and Community in the Immigration Detention System. Yesterday, the New Jersey Advocates issued a memo to President Obama to update him on the lack of progress in reforming detention.  Detention capacity in New Jersey expanded by a third since February 2010, while progress on opening access and improving conditions for the majority of detainees has been minimal. In 2011, New Jersey experienced an increased capacity of 750 beds per night, 300 beds in a county jail and 450 beds in a facility, billed as the new model for ‘civil’ detention, but run by Community Education Centers, which has a history of human rights violations and deaths in their custody. Read the memo to Obama here. Our most recent report with NYU IRC, Immigration Incarceration: The Expansion and Failed Reform of Immigration Detention in Essex County, NJ, which was released on March 23, 2012, details the conditions in the two facilities where the expansion has taken place and demonstrates the disappointing pace of detention reform in New Jersey.

More than 500 people protested the private prison industry that targets immigrants and people of color. Bishop Minerva Carcaño of the Phoenix Area and Bishop Julius Trimble of the Iowa Area, co-chairs of the United Methodist Immigration Task Force, led the rally. Speakers included a Florida immigration advocate and church members from around the U. S., the Philippines and Germany. In 2011, the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits prohibited investments in companies deriving revenue from private prisons. The board added private prisons as the sixth screen guided by the denomination’s Social Principles. The April 28 rally was held in Tampa, Florida during the 2012 General Conference.

More at http://gc2012.umc.org 

Last Friday, ICE announced its response (PDF)  to the criticisms of the Secure Communities task force comprising a diverse group of stakeholders hand-picked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DWN Members and allied organizations decried the agency’s refusal to reform “S-Comm”.

[List in formation: check back for updates]

• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles: The ‘Secure Communities’ Emperor Has No Clothes
• National Immigrant Justice Center:  “SECURE COMMUNITIES” MUST BE ENDED, NOT MODIFIED 
•  ICE’s Latest Announcement Fails to Address Program’s Problems
• National Immigration Law Center: COSMETIC TWEAKS WON’T FIX FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS; DHS’s Proposed Changes to Secure Communities Can’t Fix a Broken immigration System
• National Immigration Law Center: [PDF] ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY - How the Long-Awaited S-Comm “Reforms” Are Designed to Fail 
• New York State Working Group Against Deportation:New York Advocates Decry Lack of Meaningful Reform to Deportation Program

Ally Responses:

• Colorlines: ICE Announces Minor Deportation Policy Shift for Secure Communities
• National Immigration Forum: ICE Offer Inadequate Response to Secure Communities Task Force
• Rights Working Group: Rights Working Group Condemn Secure Communities Program Reforms as Insignificant

PRESS STATEMENT For Immediate Release

April 30, 2012

Contact: Michelle Fei, Immigrant Defense Project: mfei@immigrantdefenseproject.org, 484.466.6334

Groups Renew Call for Nationwide Termination of “Secure Communities”

 April 30, 2012 (New York, NY) – A broad coalition of New York advocates condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s announcement last week that it would refuse to adopt any meaningful reforms to the deportation program known as “Secure Communities.” The groups expressed anger and frustration with the agency’s inadequate response and renewed calls for President Obama to use his executive powers to immediately terminate the program.

ICE’s report came in response to findings and recommendations of a task force assembled to review “Secure Communities” last year. The task force was highly critical of the program, with some members recommending termination of the program altogether. In contrast, ICE’s report continues to reflect the agency’s unwillingness to address its longstanding transparency problems and to respond to the national outcry against the deportation program.

The following is a statement of Michelle Fei, Co-Director of the Immigrant Defense Project, which led successful efforts to suspend “Secure Communities” in New York through a coalition known as the New York State Working Group Against Deportation:

“ICE has failed to make any substantive changes to its fundamentally flawed ‘Secure Communities’ program, refusing even to establish a review panel to examine specific cases. The agency has already deported over one million immigrants under President Obama’s watch by funneling immigrants into an unfair immigration system that only compounds the injustices of the criminal justice system. We cannot continue to wait for the President to make good on his promises to help immigrant communities, especially when ‘Secure Communities’ presents the same anti-immigrant policies as laws like Arizona’s SB 1070. President Obama can and must use his executive powers to terminate this dangerous program immediately.”

Listen to a Special Broadcast from the New Sanctuary Coalition on Pacifica Radio, hosted by DWN member Ravi Ragbir. Aired Tuesday, April 24 on WBAI.

To listen, click on the black arrow below: 

or download the MP3 here.

THE United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on Wednesday April 25th in Arizona v. United States, the Obama administration’s challenge to Arizona’s immigration law, known as S.B. 1070. This law effectively makes undocumented status a crime under state law and penalizes unauthorized employment.

On this program Foster will discuss the “law” and why he and others have sought to challenge its legality adding to the Obama administration’s own challenge. Hear Cesar an activist from Arizona talk about how this law has affected him and his community and what they are doing about it. Pastor Harrington will discuss what her church is seeing and how the faith community is responding and why they feel the need to stop this. Silky will talk about detention, its increase, privatization and the terrible living conditions. Lisa will show that for dollars and cents laws are written to benefit a few greedy corporations that do not care for the people and this country.

HOSTED BY: Ravi Ragbir of The New Sanctuary Coalition

GUESTS:

Foster Maer: He is the Senior Litigation Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF. He joined the Legal Division in 1996 and has represented Latinos and others in federal court actions challenging: ordinances passed in Hazleton, PA and Riverside, NJ, requiring documentation of immigration status to rent a home or obtain a job. Challenging the lengthy delays in the naturalization process depriving people of the ability to vote in the 2008 elections. He has took on the manner in which I.C.E conducted home raids looking for undocumented immigrants; and discriminatory police actions targeting Latino day laborers in Mamaroneck, NY, and Freehold, NJ. He is graduate of Harvard College and obtained his J.D. from Northeastern University

Silky Shah: is the Field Director of the Detention Watch Network (DWN), a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to reform the U.S. immigration detention and deportation system. Silky has been active in the immigrant’s rights, anti-war, prison reform and racial justice movements for nearly a decade as an organizer, campaign strategist, and journalist. In addition to her work with DWN, she co-produces Asia Pacific Forum, a pan-Asian radio show on Pacifica’s WBAI 99.5 FM in New York. Silky has also served as an outreach organizer at Democracy Now! and as an organizer and board member at Grassroots Leadership.

Rev. Allison Harrington: is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has been the pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona since January of 2009. Southside Presbyterian Church was one of the founding churches of the Sanctuary Movement and continues in that tradition through its social justice ministries most notably the Samaritans, a humanitarian organization that provides aid to migrants in the desert and the Southside Worker Center which provides a safe place for day laborers to wait for work as well as numerous opportunities to organize for migrant rights.

Since arriving in Arizona, Reverend Harrington has been organizing with other faith communities for the rights of migrants particularly in light of anti-immigrant legislation such as SB1070. Southside is proud to be a plaintiff in the Friendly House vs. Whiting law suit against SB1070.

via One Love Movement, A Statement from Southeast Asian American Community Groups

On November 1 2011, videos were submitted by community groups around the country for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) “What’s Your Story” Video challenge . Winners from the contest would have the opportunity to present their issue at the White House to White House Administration officials at an event called “Champions of Change” on April 5, 2012.

We were really excited to see Studio Revolt’s video on the issue of deportation in the Cambodian American community, My Asian Americana, be chosen for the final 11, because it meant we were being heard. It’s a video that speaks to the activism work of our community, challenges institutional oppression and unjust immigration policies, and shows the depth of our humanity.

The community and the country watched and voted, and “My Asian Americana” went viral and was viewed by thousands of people! We were thrilled. We knew a presentation at the White House would not solve the problem of deportation. But it would be a step in this long haul movement. However, Studio Revolt was not invited to the White House as one of the 9 out of 11 chosen groups, despite clear and massive public support. Our families, our communities, our pain, was silenced again.

THIS IS WHY WE’RE ANGRY

We’re angry because our country was the target of secret and illegal US bombing during an unjust war in Southeast Asia.
…because the destruction of bombing led a genocidal dictatorship to rise and wipe out nearly a third of our people.
…because we lived with unknown futures in Thai refugee camps for years.
…because as refugees in the US, we were resettled in neighborhoods that didn’t accept us.
…because we suffer from PTSD & are given little access to mental health services.
…because our teachers have limited language services to communicate with our parents.
…because we are not given quality or equal education.
…because we are bullied & beat up by our peers who don’t understand us or our history.
…because we are labeled “gang members” and racially profiled because we stick together.
…because we feel the complex heartbreak of poor choices made with little guidance.
…because rehabilitated re-entry offers few avenues to work & support our families.
…because our loved ones are detained & mandatorily deported by ICE for past mistakes.
…because the prison industry is making billions separating our families & locking us up.
…because our loved ones are torn away from us & sent back to the country we once fled.
…because our families are struggling to make ends meet.
…because our country believes in second chances, but we don’t see them.
…because we are doubly punished.
…because our community is labeled “criminal aliens.”
We’re angry because our struggle is being silenced.

“My Asian Americana” gave the public and our government yet another opportunity to understand and acknowledge the unjust conditions in which we live, and the unjust policies that dehumanize us. But that opportunity wasn’t taken, because our government considers the issue of deportation for criminal convictions “too controversial”. Our community has been campaigning and building power around this issue since 2002, and we are continuously silenced. Our government, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), prefer to label us “criminal aliens”, “threats to society”, and use our community as a political scapegoat – instead of understanding the depth and complexity of our struggle, recognizing the severe due process and proportionality violations in the law, and the long term effects deportation will have on our communities and families for decades to come.

THIS IS OUR CALL

We call on our brothers and sisters all over the country to speak out to the White House, WHIAAPI, and members of the US Congress in solidarity against deportation of those who fall under the misused and politically exploited category of “Criminal Alien”, and advocate for Southeast Asian American families. We need to fight against the racist, classist, anti-immigrant, and anti-refugee sentiment that affects all of us. We cannot allow politics to deter us from our unity as human beings and make us sacrifice one community over another.

We call on communities who are faced with school-to-prison pipeline, juvenile and criminal justice, racial profiling and re-entry issues to stand with us in this fight, because these are our experiences too. We call on communities fighting for immigrant rights to stop using “criminal” vs. “non-criminal” language in the immigration debate, as it plays into a system of language that oppresses and simplifies our stories, and divides immigrant communities.

Cambodian Americans who pledged allegiance to the flag, and are then retroactively torn away from the arms of their families for crimes they have already been punished for – is a reality for us EVERYDAY. We call on our communities to stand up and fight for what is ours – our rights, our homes, our families, our dignity – and march with love in our hearts and our fists in the air! We will not be silenced!

Here are steps you can take to get involved:

1. Organize a community screening of Studio Revolt’s My Asian Americana and Return to Sender in your home or other space. Discuss the issue and brainstorm how you can organize your community together.
 And continue to follow the work of Studio Revolt.
2. Write a statement against unjust and retroactive deportation for past criminal convictions, the silencing of this issue, and ICE and DHS’s destructive policies that rip families apart. Send it to the White House, WHIAAPI, and your US Congressional members. You can find out who they are at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Send us a copy and we’ll post your letters on One Love Movement’s website: contact@onelovemovement.com
3. Become more educated on this issue and spread the tools to others. See Deported Diaspora’s Resources and Links, One Love’s Know The Issue, and Families For Freedom’s Community Organizing Manual Deportation 101.
4. Join the SEARAC’s legislative visit database – commit to visiting your local and federal elected officials to engage them on this issue. For more info, email searac@searac.org.
5. Read and share One Love’s Statement against the government’s use of the word “Criminal” to target our loved ones, and join our Mailing List to stay informed. And see PrYSM’s End Racial Profiling Campaign to learn how to organize against institutionalized oppression of law enforcement in your community.

Organize your family, friends, & community to STAND UP & FIGHT BACK!

• One Love Movement, Pennsylvania
• Providence Youth Student Movement, Rhode Island
• Khmer Girls in Action, California
• Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, Louisiana
• CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, New York
• Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, Washington D.C.

via Megan Mack:

Release:          Immediate

Contact:            Julie Brown
Phone:              312-988-6133
Email:               julie.brown@americanbar.org

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 19, 2012—To help ensure America’s commitment to justice for all, the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration has produced an updated version of “Know Your Rights,” an educational video for the more than 400,000 men and women held in immigration detention facilities across the country each year.

The “Know Your Rights” video will be especially valuable for more than 80 percent of people in detention who do not have lawyers. Unlike in the criminal justice context, there is no right to government-paid counsel in immigration proceedings.

The new video will provide a crucial tool to thousands of adults held in immigration detention each year, particularly those held in smaller, more remote facilities with no legal orientation program,” said Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, president of the American Bar Association.  “It will help to promote a fair legal process and to provide meaningful access to justice.

“Our goal is to increase access to justice for the hundreds of thousands of detainees facing deportation and permanent separation from their families,” said Immigration Commission Chair Karen T. Grisez. “Reliable information is especially important since we know that so many detainees won’t be able to obtain a lawyer and will be forced to represent themselves.”

“‘Know Your Rights’ was also developed to promote efficiency within the immigration adjudication system,” Grisez added. “Detainees who view the video may learn about and pursue relief for which they did not previously know they were eligible. They may even learn there’s a chance they are U.S. citizens. Others may choose not to contest their deportation after learning that they have no meritorious claim, thus conserving resources through shorter detention times and court proceedings.”

The ABA Commission on Immigration collaborated on the project with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, Detention Watch Network, and the National Immigrant Justice Center. The Commission is working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to distribute the video to the 250 detention centers across the country.

Click  VIDEO: ” href=”http://ABA.pr-optout.com/Url.aspx?515903x7078275x1456763″ target=”_blank”>here to view a preview of the video.

To view the entire video, go  VIDEO: ” href=”http://ABA.pr-optout.com/Url.aspx?515903x7078274x940989″ target=”_blank”>here.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the world’s largest voluntary professional membership organization. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

END MANDATORY DETENTION

This month, marks the 15-year anniversary of the implementation of harsh immigration laws (including the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act) that have led to the detention and deportation of millions of immigrants. To help raise awareness about the impact of these laws on mandatory detention policy we are asking DWN members and allies to distribute the poster on the left.

The poster features Nazry Mustakim and his wife Hope. Nazry, a 31-year-old green card holder from Singapore, was held in immigration detention for 10 months at the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, Texas. Due to laws passed in 1996, Nazry’s prior drug conviction subjected him to mandatory detention, which meant that he could not be released on bond. After ten months of hardship and separation and unrelenting advocacy by Hope, his family and community, Nazry has been released from detention and is back home. However, Nazry’s story is exemplary of the injustices immigrants face in detention daily. We must act now and raise awareness to repeal mandatory detention to stop unjust detention

How to Spread the Word

Link to poster: http://detentionwatchnetwork.org/DND_resources 

• Make the poster your Facebook profile picture and send out via Twitter
• Upload the poster to your website and blog
• Send the poster or this email to your networks
• Print the poster for distribution at May Day events – please contact sshah@detentionwatchnetwork.org if you need assistance

For more about Nazry and Hope’s story please click here.
To endorse the Dignity not Detention Campaign visit www.dignitynotdetention.org

New on Soundcloud! via Radio Diaries:

 (If your browser doesn’t show the HTML5 player above, click here.)

A 26-year-old Los Angeles resident gets deported to his parents’ home country of El Salvador, which he has not seen since age five. He has no memories of the country, no immediate family, and little ability to speak Spanish. This story originally aired on This American Life.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Christina Fialho, CFialho@detentiondialogues.org

Strategies and Stories on Starting an ICE-Approved Visitation Program

April 17, 2012

Today, Detention Dialogues in California, the Catholic Sisters of Mercy in Illinois, and Conversations with Friends in Minnesota release a guide to help communities across the United States establish immigration detention visitation programs, which are approved by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Since the creation of ICE in 2003, over two million individuals have passed through ICE detention facilities in a network of over 250 jails and private prisons.  Men, women, and children can spend weeks, months, and sometimes years inside of these facilities with little connection to the outside world and limited access to legal, medical, or social resources.  To combat the isolating experience of immigration detention, communities throughout the United States are establishing volunteer-based visitation programs offering friendship and a connection to the outside world.  However, establishing a community visitation program at a U.S. immigration detention facility often takes years.

“Within the first six months of our attempt to establish Detention Dialogues, it became apparent that detention facilities, ICE, and community groups were working at odds on an issue that requires collaboration,” said Christina Fialho, co-founder of Detention Dialogues and Steering Committee Member of the Detention Watch Network.  ”We hope this guide will help communities across the United States establish and grow immigration detention visitation programs with minimal barriers.”

The guide includes a step-by-step process to starting an ICE-approved visitation program and stories from three approved programs in Illinois, Minnesota, and California.  This guide also showcases visitation programs operating in Texas, New York, and New Jersey that function through other alliances.

To access the guide in its entirety, click on: Strategies and Stories on Starting and ICE-Approved Visitation Program

The Daily Bruin with more details: 

About 20 demonstrators walked out of the lecture hall during the speech to protest immigration laws in Arizona and deportations of undocumented students and their families by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, organizers said. The agency is headed by the Department of Homeland Security, which runs under Napolitano’s supervision. As they left the hall, some demonstrators chanted phrases such as “Education, not deportation.”

A number of protesters also chanted the same phrase and “Right to Dream” from outside the building. Their echoes could be heard from inside the lecture hall.

Police officers stood by and monitored the situation, but no confrontations occurred.

“We were trying to make sure that Janet Napolitano addressed the issue of immigration that is so prevalent within the greater L.A. area and within the UCLA community,” said Carlos Castellanos, the external policy chair of IDEAS at UCLA and a third-year political science and philosophy student.

via Megan Mack, Director, Commission on Immigration, American Bar Association:

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to join ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III and ABA Commission on Immigration Chair Karen T. Grisez for an ABA Immigrant Rights Press Briefing on Thursday, April 19, 2012, 10:30-11:30 a.m., at Fried Frank LLP inWashington, D.C.  The briefing will preview the ABA Know Your Rights video, a new educational video for the more than 400,000 men and women held in immigration detention facilities around the country each year.  The briefing will also include a discussion of the ABA amicus brief in State of Arizona et al. v. United States of America. Flyers in English and Spanish for the briefing are attached, and information is also included below. The video, in English, Spanish, and French, will be available on our website after the briefing, at http://www.americanbar.org/immigration.

Please RSVP to immcenter@americanbar.org by next Tuesday, April 17 if you are able to attend. Thank you very much.

With best wishes,

Megan Mack

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS PRESS BRIEFING

The ABA and its Commission on Immigration are pleased to invite you to a press briefing and preview of “Know Your Rights,” a new educational video for the more than 400,000 men and women held in immigration detention facilities around the country each year.  Available in English, Spanish and French, the video replaces a decade-old version with new information to teach immigration detainees how to navigate the court system and what to expect as they await their day in court.

The briefing comes less than a week before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument on April 25 in State of Arizona et al. v. United States of America.  An author of the ABA’s amicus brief in the case will discuss the ABA’s position that implementation of the four enjoined provisions of Arizona SB 1070 would conflict with the federal system of statutes and regulations that are carried out by federal agencies and specialized courts.

• Date:               Thursday, April 19
• Time:              10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
• Location:         Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 801 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC  20006

 Light refreshments will be served.

 ABA President William T. (Bill) Robinson III will offer opening remarks and introduce the video.

Karen T. Grisez, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Chair, ABA Commission on Immigration will lead a panel discussion of the video and be available to answer questions about the amicus brief.

Please RSVP by Tuesday, April 17:  immcenter@americanbar.org

CONTACT:  Lena Graber: 617.227.9727 x.6  lena@nationalimmigrationproject.org

Stop your local law enforcement from holding immigrants for ICE!

The National Immigration Project, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the Immigrant Defense Project, the Washington Defenders Association, and the National Immigration Law Center have produced a new resource for organizers and advocates to prevent deportations in our communities: The All-in-One Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests.

As Secure Communities continues to expand and deportations reach record numbers, communities have sought new ways to push back against these ICE programs and removals. From Santa Clara County, CA to Cook County, Illinois to New York City, communities have demanded that local law enforcement stop submitting to ICE hold requests.

When someone is booked into a local jail, on any charges, ICE issues a hold request to that jail, asking to keep the person locked up for an extra 48 hours so that ICE can come get them and deport them.  These hold requests are the functional tool that underlies Secure Communities, 287(g), and the Criminal Alien Program.  If communities refuse to submit to ICE hold requests, then immigrants who are released from jail are able to go back home to their families, instead of being snatched away to immigration detention and deportation.

The Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests is a manual for communities to understand how immigration enforcement works, and to engage with local law enforcement and policy-makers to pass laws and policies against hold requests.  It includes organizing suggestions, details about ICE hold requests and how they work, legal and policy analyses, messaging advice, and sample materials.

“We emphasize throughout that people should contact us for individual assistance,” said Lena Graber, author and Soros Justice Fellow at the National Immigration Project.  “A few communities have taken a strong stance against ICE holds, and we are collaborating with people around the country to replicate these efforts.”

“There are a lot of confusing technical details underlying the relationships between ICE and local law enforcement,” Graber added.  “The Guide is designed to help communities get better information and plan their campaigns strategically.”

The All-in-One Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests is available on the National Immigration Project’s website: http://www.nationalimmigrationproject.org/community/All_in_One_Guide_to_Defeating_ICE_Hold_Requests.pdf

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The National Immigration Project is a national non-profit that provides legal and technical support to immigrant communities, legal practitioners, and all advocates seeking to advance the rights of noncitizens.  We are especially committed to working together with people who are marginalized to protect rights and to promote fairness, including battered women, people with HIV/AIDS, children, and noncitizen criminal offenders. Our success is built upon a foundation of nationwide members, including attorneys, law students, judges, jailhouse lawyers, advocates, community organizations, and other individuals seeking to defend and expand the rights of immigrants in the United States.

Fault Lines: “Punishment and Profits: Immigration Detention”

This new documentary  on  Al Jazeera’s flagship English news program Fault Lines investigates the business of immigrant detention and finds out how a few companies are shaping US immigration laws.

 Featuring DWN members and allies, including Americans for Immigrant Justice, Grassroots Leadership, Hope Mustakim and Judy Greene, the documentary highlights the impact of mandatory detention policies and the private prison industry on the growing immigration detention system.

 Watch the groundbreaking episode and share it with your networks

 To endorse the Dignity not Detention Campaign visit www.dignitynotdetention.org