“This,” said Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, “is about real people with real dreams.”
Yesterday, Perez joined the Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali and a distinguished panel at the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court decision that guaranteed equal access to a public education to all children, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. In their remarks, Perez and Ali highlighted the stories of real people: the many children whose access to education—and their dreams—are being threatened as a result of Alabama’s HB 56 and other anti-immigrant state laws.
By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 10:18am
This week and next, the House and Senate will hold hearings (including this one today) to address the reported release of between several hundred and several thousand immigration detainees from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") custody. Although complete information about the releases is not yet available, ICE's justification that it had determined these individuals could be "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release" raises a fundamental question, posed among others by Secretary Janet Napolitano herself: why were these individuals detained in the first place?
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.
What happens to a DREAM deferred? In 2010 Senate Republicans defeated the bipartisan legislation, which offered a path to citizenship for DREAMers—promising undocumented youth headed to college or the military, most of whom were brought to the United States at very young ages through no fault of their own. But now, the same party that stamped out DREAM is attempting to bring it back—somewhat.
By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:19pm
Today we let federal lawmakers know that Arizona’s racial profiling law, S.B. 1070, is about much more than just the state of Arizona and its immigrants. It’s about how we see ourselves as a nation.
In 2009, Claudia Leiva Deras, a domestic violence survivor who is now a lawful U.S. resident, was held in immigration detention at the Cass County Jail in Plattsmouth, Neb. While Claudia waited there for the outcome of her immigration hearing, she faced months of brutality at the hands of a fellow detainee. Claudia was hit, kicked and choked daily. She was also sexually assaulted and left bleeding, with no one to turn to for help.
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 Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office at 3:02pm
Excluding immigration detention from prison rape standards that prevent, detect and respond to sexual assault in custody is unjustifiable and unconscionable.
By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:44am
Watching President Obama take the Oath of Office four years ago was a historic moment I will never forget. I remember meeting him when he was an Illinois state senator...
