NDLON

The numbers come as recent cases illustrating ICE's excesses have sparked anger in immigrant communities. Just this morning, ICE took Los Angeles day laborer Hector Nolasco from Sheriff Baca's jail after he was arrested for standing up for his rights at the workplace and retaliated against by his employer with a false police report. Also wrongfully arrested and placed into deportation proceedings because of S-Comm is Bakersfield farm worker Ruth Montaño who faces deportation after a bizarre, unjustified arrest over a complaint her small dogs were barking too loudly. 

Each day that the Governor delays on the TRUST Act more people like Hector and Ruth are swept into S-Comm's dragnet at an alarming rate of nearly 2,000 each month. The deportation crisis has led other states like Massachusetts and Connecticut to sponsor their own versions of the TRUST Act in what is becoming a trend of local policies setting model legislation that protects public safety and propels the national immigration debate forward.

"If the TRUST Act was signed into law, Hector Nolasco would not be behind bars right now. And if President Obama suspended deportations, Hector could help advocate for new immigration laws that protect labor rights, so this type of thing never happens again," said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "Instead, Hector is separated by his family today, because political leaders have a gap between rhetoric and reality.   It is immoral to play politics with immigration when the lives of people like Hector and his wife and daughter hang in the balance.  Leading on immigration requires actions and requires action now.  The most effective way for Governor Brown to influence the immigration debate is to take concrete action to protect the people in his state."

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Revelations of Deportation Quota and Widespread Detainer Requests Spur Local Policies to Restore Trust and Safety, Protect Immigrant Residents

States and cities across the country are taking the initiative to use their constitutional powers to improve public safety and advance the inclusion of their immigrant residents by limiting ICE’s overreaching hold requests. New bills are expected to pass New York's city council this week as California, Connecticut and Massachusetts advance TRUST Act state legislation.

“I’ve been working on the TRUST Act for more than two years, and I’m happy to see other states and local governments joining in the effort to reduce the abuses of the S-Comm program,” said Asm. Ammiano (D-CA). “That’s the good news. The bad news is that productive Californians will still be deported day after day until we can enact AB 4. Ruth Montaño of Bakersfield is just one especially awful case. We know that two of three Californians deported under S-Comm are people with no convictions or minor ones. Local law enforcement needs clear guidance so they don’t continue to help ICE create chaos up our communities. My office is working with Governor Brown to craft a policy that will work for all of California.”

On the call, the story of Ruth Montaño, a mom and 13-year resident from Bakersfield, CA, illustrated the ludicrous overreach of ICE and the urgent need to pass the TRUST Acts.  Montaño is herself facing deportation because of a neighbors' complaint regarding her barking dogs.  Despite the abusive and unjustified circumstances of her arrest, Ms. Montaño was held for a week on an ICE "hold" request. The TRUST Act would have prevented her unfair detention, and immigrant rights groups are hopeful Gov. Brown will fulfill his promise to quickly advance a new version of the bill. 

State Sen. Eldridge (D-MA) said, “Alarming statistics show that the number of immigrants being deported across the nation have no actual criminal record. The TRUST Act puts a stop to the strain and anguish caused by families being torn apart and seeks to restore faith between our community members and law enforcement by establishing that it is not the responsibility of local law officials to enforce federal immigration laws.”

In recent weeks it has been revealed that a deportation quota of 400,000 per year drives current immigration policy and has drastically altered the relationship of local law enforcement to immigrant communities. New data has exposed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued some 1,000,000 detainer requests to local jails during much of President Obama's first term but only 8.6% of those requests were for people convicted with crimes that ICE considered serious and 77% were for people with no conviction whatsoever.  

"We have expanded immigration enforcement from the federal to the local level, but we have not created more secure communities," Rep.Gary Holder-Winfield (D-New Haven, Hamden) said. "We have created communities of fear among people who are here for many reasons, including the aspiration to becoming American citizens. We have created communities that avoid interaction with police at all costs; the costs of their health, of acting as witnesses to crimes, at the cost of those of us who were lucky enough to be born in this country. So, I am working on this bill to put in place the protocols to reduce fear, set forth clear policy and do our part to maintain the security of the residents of this state," he said.

While controversy has surrounded the Secure Communities (S-Comm) deportation program since its implementation, such revelations have created new urgency for local states concerned with violations of civil rights and the erosion of trust in local law enforcement as a result of the Administration's decision to enlist local police as 'force multipliers' in immigration enforcement.

Following the TRUST Act initiated in California (reintroduced as AB 4 - Governor Brown has planned to ), Connecticut (HB 5938) andMassachusetts (S 1135) are the latest states to file similar bills. The TRUST Acts create a baseline standard that guides local law enforcement to improve public safety by limiting ICE’s dragnet hold requests. 

As proven in municipalities with similarly enacted policies such as Cook County, Illinois and Washington DC, passage of TRUST Acts increase safety, improves trust between immigrant communities and police, saves valuable local resources, and propels the immigration debate past cynical efforts to criminalize immigrants and toward meaningful reform.  Call participants will explain how their states are setting an example of curtailing cruel enforcement and preventing those who could soon qualify for legalization from being deported before reform is passed. 

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12.21.2012 - Los Angeles, CA

Today, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) announced revisions to the controversial Secure Communities deportation program. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network issued the following response:

“There is broad consensus that the criminalization of immigrants driven by ICE has led to a deep, nationwide human rights crisis. The fact that 409,000 families were separated this year should be evidence enough for the need to end programs like Secure Communities altogether." - Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director