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Month: February 2018

Trump Supreme Court Gives ICE Power to Hold People Indefinitely, Making Private Prisons Millions

Posted on by Tania Unzueta

 

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled today that U.S. Immigration officials can hold people indefinitely, without receiving bond hearings. Carlos Garcia, Mijente member and Executive Director of Puente Human Rights Movement in Arizona, issued the following statement on behalf of the organizations:

“The decision of the Supreme Court will have a permanent impact on our communities. With the eroding rights of immigrants, these bond hearings were a lifeline for many of our members fighting to stay with their families. The inhumane living conditions, the violence and impunity of ICE, and now the lack of opportunity for immigrants to present their case for freedom, turns these facilities into nothing more than concentration camps.

As the Trump administration ramps up immigration raids and enforcement and ICE takes advantage of its unchecked power the Supreme Court has paved the way for the exponential growth of people in detention, putting millions of dollars in the pockets of the private prison industry”

The Supreme Court ruling impacts immigrants held in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court who will no longer have a right to a bond hearing after six months of detention. Already in 2017, the two private prison companies responsible for most of the federal contracts to detain immigrants, CoreCivic and GEO, have each had stock value increases of 30 and 20 percent respectively. Each of the corporations gave $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural celebration.

Puente Human Rights Movement is a grassroots migrant justice organization based in Phoenix, Arizona that develops, educates, and empowers migrant communities to protect and defend our families and in order to enhance the quality of life of our community members.

Mijente is a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing that seeks to increase the profile of policy issues that matter to our communities and increase the participation of Latinx and Chicanx people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice.

ICE Targets Undocumented Immigrants Who Share Their Story in the Media

Posted on by Tania Unzueta

Immigration agents claimed they pursued activist Maru Mora-Villalpando when they found her name and story in a local newspaper, labeling her an “anti-ICE” activist.

The Seattle Field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released documents stating that immigrant rights organizer Maru Mora-Villalpando came to their attention after she “stated that she is ‘undocumented’ in a local web-based publication.” The document, a Form I-213, also notes that Mora-Villalpando “has extensive involvement in anti-ICE protests and Latino advocacy programs” and that she has become a well-known “public figure.”

Mora-Villalpando and supporters have requested information from ICE via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to find out how widespread the practice is and whether ICE is looking for other immigrant rights spokespeople.

“These documents show that ICE actions are a direct attack on our organizing and freedom of speech. We demand to know how far this practice spreads and who else they are targeting for deportation,” said Mora-Villalpando.

In addition to requesting information in her case, the FOIA, filed by Sunbird Law LLC on behalf of Mora-Villalpando and Mijente, requests documents that might show other instances where ICE is pursuing deportation proceedings against individuals who made public statements to the press regarding their immigration status, others who are involved in “anti ICE protests” or “immigrant rights” activism, and “Latino advocacy programs” and “organizing.”

“This is an attack on dissent and on freedom of speech, and a dangerous characteristic of the Trump administration. A federal government that can silence our right to political and humanitarian speech without consequence is extremely dangerous for all of us,” stated Tania Unzueta, Mijente Policy Director. “If we let the actions of ICE and the Trump administration silence immigrant rights organizers, the constitutional rights to gather, organize and advocate are at stake for all of us,” she concluded.

The documents previously obtained from ICE were requested by Washington Senator Cantwell’s office. ICE has not responded to any of the previous requests for information on Mora-VIllalpando case.

Mora-Villalpando has lived in the U.S. for over 25 years. She is a founding member of the North West Detention Center Resistance, a group that fights for detainee rights and against deportations and is member of the national Latinx organization, Mijente.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-213, the document where ICE lists out the reasons and information pertaining to starting proceedings for Maru Mora Villalpando. On the second page of this document, ICE describes finding Mora-Villalpando’s information in a newspaper story and calls her an “anti-ice” activist.

Freedom of Information Act requests filed regarding the targeting of organizers and spokespeople by ICE.

Washington State Sent Information on Undocumented Activist to Immigration Enforcement Agency

Posted on by Tania Unzueta
  • Documents show the WA Department of Licensing (DOL) shared personal information used in the targeting of activist and mother Maru Mora-Villalpando. See the e-mails from DOL and ICE below.
  • Maru and Washington-based organizers are asking the state and the DOL to take steps to address the harm they have caused all people whose information was shared with ICE. Find out more and sign the petition here. 

Bellingham, WA – This morning, undocumented activist Maru Mora Villalpando and her supporters revealed documents that show that the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) released personal information belonging to Mora-Villalpando to the Seattle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. ICE used this information to begin a deportation process against Mora-Villalpando.

A WA-DOL official contacted Mora-Villalpando earlier this week to inform her of their breach of her privacy. “I would have appreciated hearing from DOL the moment ICE requested my information from them. Then yesterday, she received an email from the DOL that included the information the department had shared with ICE: A copy of her driver’s license and a copy of her driver’s license application, in an email that simply read, “here is your request.”

The WA-DOL came under fire earlier in the year when it was revealed that the department had routinely given ICE information from its database without requiring a warrant, “20 or 30 times per month.” The Governor has since ordered the practice to stop and changed processes within the State aimed at protecting immigrants.

“If the State was really interested in protecting its immigrant community members, they would share information about ICE requests with us, instead of handing our information over to ICE,” stated Mora-Villalpando. “If the State really wants to take responsibility for its actions, it will contact everyone affected by this breach, and it will offer those affected tangible support in dealing with detention and deportation. All collaboration between State agencies and ICE must end now” Mora-Villalpando concluded.

In light of the revelations regarding DOL’s collaboration with ICE, a petition launched today lays out several demands for Governor Inslee, to ensure that the Governor’s office goes beyond investigating their mistake. It calls for the Governor’s office to take proactive steps towards repairing the harm that they have done to immigrants and to prevent being an active participant in future deportations.

At an action outside the WA-DOL’s Bellingham office, outraged community members spoke out against the state agency’s information sharing. WA-DOL information has been used by ICE to target immigrant community members for detention and deportation in a state that houses the largest detention facility on the West Coast, the Northwest Detention Center. The revelations of the DOL-ICE collaboration have been particularly galling for local immigrant communities who have seen Washington’s leadership posit the state as being at the forefront in the fight against Trump’s war on immigrants.

The documents shared by the WA DOL with ICE:

Resistance to the Trump Agenda Must Include ICE and the Department of Justice

Posted on by Tania Unzueta

Our resistance to a Trump agenda and our fight for immigrant rights needs to go beyond the halls of Congress.

As the White House proposal is exposed as yet another racist puzzle piece in the administration’s ploy to advance white supremacist values, we must strategize to also bring down the two agencies that continue to be a constant threat, detaining, deporting, and incarcerating our communities and those who stand with us: ICE, Border Patrol, and the Department of Justice. 

We know that the deal proposed by the White House is part of a white supremacist agenda President Trump and his administration have pushed from the start of his presidency. We oppose the deal because it makes targets out of a majority of our family members and because it aims to permanently change the face of the United States into a whiter nation.

But we cannot win the fight to defend our communities if we continue to focus exclusively on a congressional strategy.

Trump created the current crisis by canceling DACA and TPS, but the white supremacist agenda of the Trump administration is being implemented throughout the government and affecting immigrants everywhere. While the discussions in Congress drag on, ICE, Border Patrol, and the DOJ continue to put into action the white supremacist agenda that we vehemently oppose.

Under DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents have been targeting every member of our community in the streets, in our homes, and at our workplaces, specifically and aggressively searching out undocumented immigrant leaders who speak out about our stories and the injustices of deportations.

At the same time, in addition to targeting undocumented workers, the Department of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions is seeking to criminalize city officials who continue to protect immigrants as well as individuals who offer humanitarian aid to migrants at the border.

It is time for us to not only refuse to compromise on this deal with the White House, but to also join a strategy towards eliminating the violence and terror ICE, Border Patrol, and the DOJ have been heaping on our communities.

This statement was co-written by Mijente along with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (Georgia), Puente Human Rights Movement (Arizona), Juntos (Philadelphia, PA), Organized Communities Against Deportations (Chicago, IL), and Northwest Detention Center Resistance (Seattle, WA).

Mijente is a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing. We seek to increase the profile of policy issues that matter to Latinx communities and increase the participation of Latinx and Chicanx people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice.