Immigration and Customs Enforcement

also ICE and immigration enforcement

06/18/2012

A Tale of Two Communities . . . and Zero Private Prisons

By David Shapiro, ACLU National Prison Project at 11:21am

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the world’s largest for-profit prison company, planned to contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to build a new private detention center. Resistance by the local community gained momentum. Then the plan unraveled.

These sentences describe two entirely different stories—stories that unfolded last week in communities 1300 miles apart.

05/30/2012

Immigration Detention

Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia

By Azadeh N. Shahshahani, ACLU Foundation of Georgia at 12:17pm

The ACLU of Georgia recently released a comprehensive report on conditions of detention for immigrants in Georgia, three of which are operated by for-profit corporations and one of which, the Stewart Detention Center, is the largest immigration detention facility in the country.

For purposes of this documentation project, the ACLU of Georgia interviewed 68 individuals who were detained at the Georgia immigration detention facilities, as well as detainees' family members and immigration attorneys. We also toured the detention centers and reviewed documents obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. The findings in “Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia” raise serious concerns about violations of detainees’ due process rights, inadequate living conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, and abuse of power by those in charge.

05/18/2012

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

House GOP’s Rewrite of VAWA Does Violence to Immigrants

By Charanya Krishnaswami, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:32pm

“[A]buse in the U.S. immigration system must be stopped,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) recently remarked. Ironic, considering that Smith is a co-sponsor of the recently passed H.R. 4970, a so-called “renewal” of the historic Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that actually eviscerates several long-standing protections for survivors of domestic violence—particularly immigrant survivors.

05/17/2012

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Inappropriate Appropriations: The House Votes to Waste Taxpayer Money on Unnecessary Border and Immigration Enforcement

By Charanya Krishnaswami, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office & Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:22pm

“Trimming excess.”

That’s how Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, described the committee’s recently released 2013 budget for the Department of Homeland Security. Rogers says the bill, which the committee marked up and passed out of committee yesterday, is “focused on fiscal discipline” and only supports the “most hard-hitting” of DHS’s vast umbrella of programs.

04/13/2012

Secure Communities

Whitewashing S-Comm's Immigration Enforcement Failures

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?'"

11/30/2011

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

ICE's Mess in Massachusetts

By Laura Rotolo, ACLU of Massachusetts at 5:42pm

Over the last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has played out a miniature version of its catastrophic national strategy on Secure Communities in my home state.

11/29/2011

Swept Up By S-Comm

Detain First, Investigate Later: How U.S. Citizens Are Unlawfully Detained Under S-Comm

By Jennie Pasquarella, ACLU of Southern California at 3:32pm

Detain first, investigate later — that is Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mantra when it comes to its Secure Communities program.

11/28/2011

Swept Up By S-Comm

D.C. Says No to S-Comm: City's Mayor and Council Take Bold Steps to Protect Immigrant Community

By Johnny Barnes, ACLU of the Nation's Capitol at 3:39pm

Mayor Vincent Gray and the D.C. city council rejected Secure Communities, saying they would not allow the DHS to federalize the D.C. police department.

11/21/2011

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Sharing Prints: DOJ and FBI Must Take Responsibility for S-Comm Failures, Too

By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:32pm

It’s long past time for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop passing the buck on Secure Communities (S-Comm) and take responsibility for the controversial immigration enforcement program. S-Comm has caused unprecedented harms to public safety and community trust in the police: DOJ must urgently take action to end this disastrous initiative.

S-Comm has been implemented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 1,659 jurisdictions across the country, disregarding the opposition of numerous states and localities. Under S-Comm, the FBI shares the fingerprints of every arrested person with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — despite the fact that sharing these prints contravenes agreements made between the states and the FBI.

10/27/2011

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Latest Report on Obama Immigration Program Highlights Racial Profiling

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 11:39am

Soon after the Obama administration's centerpiece immigration program, Secure Communities, went into effect in West Virginia in 2009, patrons of a popular Latin dance club called Lobos drove into a trap.

One Sunday morning, police stopped three vehicles leaving the club, claiming failure to stop at a stop sign, among other minor traffic infractions. While none of the drivers — all Hispanic — received traffic citations, the eight people traveling in the cars were arrested, the first step toward deportation proceedings that are now pending in six of the cases.

American Civil Liberties Union