By Laura Markle Downton, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy & Program, National Religious Campaign Against Torture & Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:29pm
Senator Chuck Schumer made a clear demand to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detention practices two weeks ago...
By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:24am
Border Patrol agents work in dangerous situations which can lead to tragic consequences like the shooting death and wounding of agents in Arizona this week. There is no justification for such violence targeting law enforcement officers. Yet there is also a crisis regarding use-of-force by Customs and Border Protection that is severely damaging the agency’s integrity (CBP is the Border Patrol’s parent and includes officers who work at ports of entry). The many recorded incidents of CBP fatalities and abuses demand a comprehensive, independent investigation of CBP policies and practices, as requested by members of Congress, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. A permanent, arm’s-length oversight commission for CBP must also be created.
On Monday, the Supreme Court in Arizona v. United States struck down three provisions of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 racial profiling law, but reinstated, for now, the most controversial provision, which requires Arizona police officers to demand the immigration papers of anyone they stop, arrest, or detain. S.B. 1070 makes racial profiling Arizona state policy. When a police officer asks for papers, it’s based on bias because there is no way to tell by looking at or listening to someone whether the person is lawfully in the United States.
By Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office & Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:38pm
The House of Representatives told us on Wednesday thatthe majority of members are okay with state-sanctioned racial profiling of Latinos.
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) slipped in an amendment to the FY2013 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill that would prohibit the Department of Justice from originating or joining any legal challenge to nine specified state anti-immigrant laws, many of which are racial profiling laws in thin disguise. These include laws passed by Arizona, Alabama, Utah and South Carolina, where DOJ already has pending litigation, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Georgia and Indiana laws which the ACLU has challenged in court. Missouri and Oklahoma, where two omnibus anti-immigrant laws have been in effect for several years, are also included. While the Black Amendment doesn’t affect pending DOJ litigation, the amendment would handcuff DOJ from making future litigation choices consistent with the executive branch’s responsibility to uphold the Constitution.
By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:24pm
At the end of today's Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee hearing on state and local immigration enforcement (ACLU statement here), former Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce tried to explain why Arizona's racial profiling law, S.B. 1070, makes sense. He proposed a logical two-step (watch from 120:45 here): First, he asserted that 90 percent of those who violate our immigration laws "come across that Southern border," and are "Hispanic." (In fact, 77 percent of the undocumented population is Latino.)
By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:27pm
Secure Communities, the Obama administration's favored immigration enforcement program, has a track record that includes the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens. Antonio Montejano, for example, was held for four days after an arrest stemming from his children's handling of store merchandise. He remained in custody despite repeatedly proclaiming U.S. citizenship and arrived back home to his worried 8-year-old son, who asked "'Dad, can this happen to me too because I look like you?'"
By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:20pm
This afternoon, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement is holding a hearing called "Holiday on ICE: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's New Immigration Detention Standards." (webcast here, ACLU statement here). The hearing's title and premise insult the U.S. Constitution by denigrating Immigration and Customs Enforcement's belated attempt to introduce basic, constitutionally required standards of care for the nearly 400,000 people held annually in immigration detention facilities. These men and women are detained for alleged civil, not criminal, immigration violations; many of them have U.S. citizen children and other relatives.
By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:01pm
Mark Lyttle, a native-born U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican descent with mental disabilities, was deported after an immigration court hearing in 2008 at which he had no lawyer. Despite the fact that he spoke no Spanish and was known to have spent time in a psychiatric hospital, he endured more than four months of living on the streets and in the shelters and prisons of Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
