NDLON

Sacramento - Today, following several impassioned floor speeches, the California Assembly approved the TRUST Act (AB 4 - Ammiano) by a vote of 44 to 20. The nationally-watched bill would limit harmful deportations often stemming from trivial or discriminatory arrests and rebuild community confidence in local law enforcement.

The vote comes days after an unprecedented survey of Latinos in four cities, including Los Angeles, confirmed that police involvement with immigration enforcement has significantly undermined community confidence, with 44% of responds less likely to contact police officers if they have been a victim of a crime. Among undocumented immigrants, 70% were less likely to contact law enforcement.

City Council Set to be first city in the South to Vote on Resolution On Civil Immigration Detainers

Immigrant workers and families will come closer to winning the Right to Remain in New Orleans today as City Council is set to vote on a resolution condemning Sherriff Marlin Gusman’s racial profiling-based deportation policy. Over the last two years the Sheriff has faced mounting pressure through civil rights lawsuits and public outcry to stop submitting to voluntary civil immigration holds also known as immigration detainers.

.Council members James Gray, LaToya Cantrell, and Susan Guidry will introduce a resolution limiting Sherriff Marlin Gusman’s practice of submitting to voluntary requests of federal immigration officials to detain individuals in Orleans Parish Prison. Immigrant workers who have survived the Sherriff’s policy will testify on the disastrous impacts on families; and advocates will testify on the impacts on city budget (the federal government does not reimburse jail costs) and constitutional integrity.

WHO: Council members Gray, Cantrell, and Guidry will introduce resolution. Immigrant workers and families, New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, Congress of Day Laborers, and advocates for criminal justice reform will testify.
WHERE: City Council Chambers, 1300 Perdido St., New Orleans
WHEN: 10 AM, Thursday, May 15, 2013
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See example language for TRUST Acts:

• California TRUST Act - AB4
• Connecticut TRUST Act - HB 5938
• Massachusetts TRUST Act - SB 1135
• Florida TRUST Act - SB730
• Washington, DC Immigration Detainer Compliance Act - Passed 12/2011
• Cook County, IL Policy on Immigration Detainers - Passed 09/2011
• Chicago Welcoming City Ordinance - Passed 09/2012

 Freedom of Information Act Suit to Shed Light on Tactics to Halt California TRUST Act

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2013—The Asian Law Cacus, a legal and civil rights organization serving low-income Asian Pacific American communities, has sued federal immigration authorities for information about whether they helped defeat a bill meant to limit entanglement between California law enforcement and U.S. immigration agencies.

The lawsuit seeks information from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the Department of Homeland Security under the Freedom of Information Act about possible efforts to encourage the Governor’s office and state sheriff’s association to oppose the TRUST Act, AB-4.

Had the TRUST Act passed last year, it would have restricted California's involvement in the Secure Communities program, which relies on local police to hold individuals suspected of being deportable upon arrest until ICE can pick them up for possible deportation. Last summer, the bill reached Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk with robust support from both legislative houses, but he vetoed it. 

Immigrant Communities Rallied Today in Support of the TRUST Act authored by Sen. Eldridge & Rep. Sciortino

03.20.2013

Boston, MA - 

As momentum for federal immigration reform grows, Massachusetts is set to lead the nation by advancing the TRUST act, a state bill to provide immediate relief from deportations, strengthen public safety, and propel the national conversation on immigration reform towards inclusion.  Specifically the bill sets a clear standard for local law enforcement agencies not to submit to burdensome requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) most often prompted by the Secure Communities (S-Comm) program to detain people for deportation who have otherwise been ordered released by the courts. The bill is authored by Sen. Eldridge in the Senate and Rep. Sciortino in the House and was introduced with 34 cosponsors.

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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Over the past two years, we've heard a litany of claims from ICE that the agency is taking new steps to "prioritize" its resources to focus on only the most serious cases for deportation. Yet nothing ever improves on the ground. In the name of "Secure" Communities, many contributing community members such as day laborers and domestic violence survivors languish for extra time in local jails, at ICE's request, after minor or wrongful arrests. 

Now, it is clearer than ever that ICE's parade of pronouncements - from summer 2011 right up to this winter - has merely served as a smokescreen for a massive deportation dragnet.

More than 77% of the people ICE issued holds for in the past four years hadn't been convicted of any crime. The agency even issued holds on 800 US citizens. All this, to meet an exorbitant deportation quota that directly contravenes the mandate for immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship that voters clearly expressed in November.

Enough is enough.

It's time for California, which has suffered more deportations than any other state, to set a positive example for the nation. Our state must pass the TRUST Act (AB 4- Ammiano), which will curtail cruel and costly detentions of aspiring citizens in local jails. Swift passage of the TRUST Act will propel meaningful immigration reform forward - and rein in the abuses of a federal agency which has spun completely out of control. 

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Hours after bill presented in Sacramento, influential LA leaders will urge Gov. Brown to take swift action; Passage of bill will be catalyst for national immigration reform

What:  Press conference featuring leaders of major community organizations, hailing the reintroduction of the TRUST Act in Sacramento. 

When:  Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, 3:30 PM

Where:  Headquarters of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 634 S. Spring St., Los Angeles

Who: Confirmed Executive Directors include: Pablo Alvarado, National Day Laborer Organizing Network; Vincent Chin, Chinese for Affirmative Action; Thomas Saenz, MALDEF; Reshma Shamasunder, CA Immigrant Policy Center.