Mandatory Detention of Immigrants–END NOW!

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On 15 year anniversary of controversial immigration law, Detention Watch Network launches campaign to repeal mandatory detention

Lost in Detention Link; Failed Secure Communities Program; Encarnación Bail’s story; No Más Muertes report on border abuse…

A good article on secure communities:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/us/latinos-said-to-bear-weight-of-deportation-program.html?_r=1&ref=americas

A wide range of faith, immigrant rights, and community-based organizations joined Detention Watch Network (DWN) on September 29th to announce the launch our Dignity, Not Detention campaign, calling on Congress to repeal all laws mandating the detention of immigrants.
The announcement marked the 15th anniversary of the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, legislation that dramatically increased the number of people subject to mandatory detention.  The law requires the government to lock up immigrants, including legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. their entire lives and asylum seekers seeking refuge in the U.S., without the right to due process.
“Everyone deserves the right to personal liberty,” said Silky Shah, Field Director for DWN.  “But for the past 15 years, mandatory detention laws have stripped people of their liberty without the right to defend themselves, tearing apart countless families and communities across the country, and fueling a broken immigration detention system.”
Through our Dignity, Not Detention campaign, we are calling on Congress and the Obama Adminstration to:
  • Repeal all laws mandating the detention of non-citizens
  • Put an end to all policies and programs that use the criminal justice system to target people for detention and deportation
  • Bring the U.S. into compliance with its obligations under international human rights law, which prohibits arbitrary detention.
“If we’re serious abour restoring due process to our immigration laws and reducing the human and financial cost of the detention system,” said Shah.  “It’s time to put an end to mandatory detention.”
If your organization is interested in endorsing the campaign, click here.

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Did you watch Frontline,LOST IN DETENTION?

We discovered a fascinating thing while reporting this story.

The American political debate in English-language media is dominated by jobs, health care, the deficit, two wars.

But in Spanish-language media, it’s dominated by terms and controversies completely off of the mainstream radar: the Willacy Detention Center, the Secure Communities policy, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

As USC Professor Roberto Suro explained to us, 10 million Latino voters are focused on issues “largely invisible to most voters”:

“… [S]tories of the kids who get out of school and there’s nobody to pick them up because their parents got hauled off in the middle of the day; the fathers who are gone; the people who end up in a detention system and nobody knows where they are for three months until they can track them down in some rental jail somewhere in the high desert.

“These stories are there in front of Latino voters who get their news in Spanish every day, and they become a very vivid part of what the Obama administration is about.”

On FRONTLINE, correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes a penetrating look at the Obama administration’s dramatic get-tough immigration policies, their possible political consequences and their human costs.

WATCH IT: http://video.pbs.org/video/2155873891

 

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Shadow Report  http://altopolimigra.com/s-comm-shadow-report/

NDLON and a National Community Advisory Commission published “RESTORING COMMUNITY: A National Community Advisory Report on ICE’s Failed “Secure Communities” Program,” an authoritative report on the failed Secure Communities program. Download available here or it can be read online below.

Add your organization to the list of endorsers here.

Click here and here for coverage of the campiagn.

The Real Impact of Police-ICE Collaboration: Click Here to Read More Testimonies from People Affected by S-Comm

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Encarnación Bail:  Story in Riverfront Times: It’s about a Guatemalan immigrant in Carthage, Missouri whose child was taken away from her while she was being detained on immigration charges. Her case recently scaled all the way up to the Supreme Court and was recently punted down to the trial level for a new hearing. Now, people are saying that after four years with the adoptive parents, perhaps he belongs in Middle-class America, not rural Guatemala.
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2011-10-20/news/encarnacion-bail-carlos-jamison-moser-adoption-carthage-missouri-supreme-court/

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New Report by No More Deaths Alleges Rampant Border Patrol Abuse
On September 22, No More Deaths released A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody, a report that includes 30,000 incidents of abuse documented over 3 years in interviews with 13,000 recent deportees.  No More Deaths found that patterns of abuse identified in its last report, Crossing the Line, persist and that oversight mechanisms in place cannot prevent mistreatment from occuring.  The full report is available at cultureofcruelty.org.
Organizational endorsements to the attached sign on letter should be sent to danielle.a.alvarado@gmail.com.  Individual sign ons to the change.org petition are also welcome.
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a hopeful video clip:

http://youtu.be/9fc0UsXUlQ4

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