As President Biden’s first 100 days come to a close, here is where we are in the fight to make sure the administration addresses deportations and immigration enforcement, and listens to the voices of our communities:
- We’ve made our voices heard. As President Biden launched a review of immigration enforcement policies, we launched the Eyes on ICE series, because no review of immigration enforcement policies is complete without the voices of those directly impacted. Since the launch of the series we have partnered across 78 different co-hosting organizations to host 30 forums with participation from 48 states & Mexico. We’ve also documented 150 testimonies that speak to the specific reasons why deportations must stop, ICE must be dismantled, and how to go about doing it.
- Our communities are still getting deported and detained. More than 300,000 people have been deported since President Biden took office and individuals seeking asylum have been consistently turned away. And as for-profit immigration detentions centers remain, families separation continues and our communities endure discrimination and criminalzaiton. Just in the last week, Isrrael Victorio-Tegoma, one of the people who provided testimony for the Eyes on ICE forum from detention was deported.
- Sec. Mayorkas has committed to attending a public meeting. Mijente and the “We are Home” campaign asked DHS Secretary Mayorkas to meet with community members directly impacted by immigration enforcement. Although the date is still pending, he has committed to scheduling a public forum with us in the near future. We will make sure that this meeting takes place as soon as possible and that our communities are heard, because we know that every day that Biden and Mayorkas delay action, the system will continue to unjustly harm millions of people.
- The White House has not yet set their priorities for deportation – which means we still have a chance to influence them. The document that sets the instructions for ICE agents all over the country about who they should deport and who can have a chance to stay with their families has not been written yet. This means that we can still work to change the bad parts of the current policy, particularly the pieces that rely on the criminalization and policing of Black and brown communities.
We will continue to organize with those whose lived experiences must inform the revisions made to DHS and immigration enforcement agencies. We will continue to fight for the meaningful change that our communities deserve.
