New York Advocates Celebrate Suspension of Controversial "Secure Communities" Deportation Program

Families for Freedom applauds Governor Cuomo on the suspension of the Secure Communities program in New York State! Along with the New York State Working Group Against Deportation, a broad coalition of organizations in New York State, Families for Freedom has been advocating for the suspension of the program for over a year. This is a an outstanding victory for New York!

Betsy DeWitt, Director of Families for Freedom commented, "The Secure Communities program threatened the security of our families and created mistrust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement. Governor Cuomo has shown great leadership by suspending this mass deportation program. We feel this is a step in the right direction towards ending this misguided program and other punitive enforcement actions. We hope that other Governors across the country will follow his lead."

We hope that you will continue to support Families for Freedom in its work and continue to support our communities against detention and deportation! Please see the official statements from Governor Cuomo and the New York State Working Group Against Deportation below.



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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 1, 2011

Contact:
Michelle Fei, mfei@immigrantdefenseproject.org, 484.466.6334
Mizue Aizeki, maizeki@nmcir.org, 914.471.2775
Javier Valdés, javier.valdes@maketheroadny.org, 917.679.2971

New York, NY (June 1, 2011) – A wide coalition of immigrant advocacy groups today applauded Governor Cuomo for suspending the mass deportation program known as “Secure Communities.” This news makes New York the second state in the country to withdraw from the controversial program.

“Governor Cuomo has taken a momentous step towards keeping families together and protecting the rights of our immigrant communities,” said Michelle Fei of the Immigrant Defense Project. “Withdrawing from Secure Communities is the only sensible solution.”

“We are grateful that Cuomo has heard our communities’ concerns and has responded by making New York safer for all New Yorkers,” said Javier H. Valdés of Make the Road New York. “Secure Communities represents a dragnet approach to deportation that diminishes trust between immigrants and local law enforcement.”

“We are greatly encouraged that Governor Cuomo has recognized that Secure Communities erodes trust with the police, encourages racial profiling, and funnels immigrants into an unjust deportation system,” said Mizue Aizeki of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights. “This program never did and never will belong in New York.”

“This moratorium will halt the spread of a program that was sold as a safety measure but instead made New York less safe by making vulnerable New Yorkers afraid to call the police for help or to report a crime,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “Instead of protecting us, Secure Communities has been used as a shortcut to deportation.”

“Governor Cuomo has shown real moral authority by ending New York’s participation in Secure Communities,” said Ravi Ragbir of the New Sanctuary Coalition. “We pray that other governors across the country will follow the example set by Illinois and New York.”

Since Secure Communities, which is run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was signed into effect a year ago in New York, advocates have called upon both Governors Paterson and Cuomo to end the state’s participation, calling it an unjust dragnet that tears New York families apart and destroys the trust between police and the communities they serve.

Nationally, ICE has come under fire for lack of transparency and accountability in its administration of the program. Two weeks ago, a letter released by a former ICE contractor confirmed that ICE intentionally misled New York to obtain the state’s participation in Secure Communities.

“Especially given ICE’s own admissions about the way in which it has deceived states, including New York, about Secure Communities, there is simply no reason why any jurisdiction should participate,” said Center for Constitutional Rights’ Sunita Patel, one of the attorneys who had sued ICE to release documents about the program. “No state should trust an agency that has acted so duplicitously in its dealings.”

Cuomo’s decision joins a groundswell of opposition against the program. In recent weeks, Illinois Governor Quinn rescinded its agreement to participate in Secure Communities, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren Sen. Menendez called for an investigation of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus urged Pres. Obama to stop Secure Communities immediately. In New York, 38 state legislators – joined by US Congress Members Serrano and Velasquez – called upon Governor Cuomo to terminate the State’s Secure Communities agreement while religious leaders and advocates held vigils and rallies demanding an end to the program.

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The New York State Working Group Against Deportation is a broad coalition of domestic violence, immigrant rights, family services, labor, faith-based, civil rights, and community-based organizations that aims to stop Secure Communities and other deportation programs.

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From the Governor's Office [on the decision to suspend "Secure Communities."]: http://governor.ny.gov/press/06012011FederalSecureCommunitiesProgram

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Manisha Vaze
Organizer
Families for Freedom
3 W 29th St. #1030
New York, NY 10001
ph: (646) 290-5551
fax: (800) 895-4454
www.familiesforfreedom.org

Fragile thoughts on the 16th anniversary of the implementation of Operation Gatekeeper

By Pedro Ríos

He has a name. That man who could not take it anymore has a name but I don’t recall it. He left his home because he could not understand how his dignity no longer had meaning in an irrational world. Irrational because in order for his family to survive, he had to leave them behind, taking with him the mementos that would convince him in the barren desert that once he felt human. A tattered picture of his young family, maybe her handkerchief with the sweet smell of home, the one that held his last meal, or that lasting memory – the moment under that October harvest moon when they prayed their final goodbyes.

In the desert, while the heat scorched, blackening his skin, shrinking and shriveling it, and in spite of this, the memory of his child holding back the tears because his mother told him to do so, “sonríe, pa’ que tu apá te vea que eres valiente.” This memory, I imagine, until his last breath, but I really don’t know because our history makes him nameless so that we too become less human.

His final breath a scratchy gasp of desert sand. In the desert the fading sounds of his life in pure agony, alone. Nameless in history, just some John Doe on a brick tablet in a paupers grave, but a legacy of systemic displacement and death that blot our backyard deserts and mountains.

He was the first one.

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At the coroners office we were not permitted to identify the body. We didn’t know if Areli was there. Don Concepción, who traveled from that rural pueblito of Mazatlán in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, would not know this October evening if his daughter, Areli, was the scorched unidentifiable body inside the plastic body bag, a victim of the inferno in 2007 that blazed San Diego County for two weeks. This gave him hope. Hope that Areli was not with the three groups of migrants who were trapped in the merciless firestorms that first ravaged the backcountry and eventually reached cookie cutter homes outlining San Diego communities. Hope that somehow she made it out safely, was hiding somewhere for fear that she would be detected and sent back to the desperation that pushed her to leave. Hope that Areli would one day marry, have children, grandchildren that he could hold, caress, feel their soft breath on his chest, be content.

Three days later, the local paper read: “Identifican a 4 mexicanos que murieron en incendio forestal.” Two months later, DNA results would confirm Areli perished as a result of injuries sustained trying to escape the firestorms.

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Sobre una pared de metal un día me agarre pintando las imágenes del Operativo Guardián, guiándome con un pincel viejo, de madera enmohecido por sangre que escurría por sus pelos de alambre.

Sobre esa pared de acero, una vuelca de carro; los cadáveres sin nombre; la golpiza al migrante; el desangrado; el olvidado; la violada; los deportados; las balas expansivas que mutilan los cuerpos; más cadáveres; muro, tras muro, tras muro; los cucusclans disfrazados de neonazis cazamigrantes; los naufragios; sueños frustrados convertidos en pesadillas; la razón sin razón; la violencia normalizada; la sociedad acostumbrada e apaciguada…

Sobre esa pared escalofriante, las imágenes del Operativo Guardián duelen, arden, y detrás del suspiro, apenas sin ocultar la necesidad de un semblante de justicia, se escucha esta petición desesperada…

¿Cómo carajos hemos permitido esto?

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Pedro Ríos is the director of the American Friends Service Committee's U.S.-Mexico Border Program in San Diego, California.

NNIRR: Immigration Blueprint Reveals Challenges for Immigration Fairness

For Immediate Release
March 20, 2010

Immigration Blueprint Reveals Challenges for Immigration Fairness
Hard Work, Commitment Needed to End Trauma of Current Policies, Ensure Human Rights

For more information, contact:
Catherine Tactaquin 510.459.4457 (mobile)
510.465.1984 ext. 302 (office)

OAKLAND, CA: The "blueprint" for immigration reform recently released by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) points to a difficult road ahead for decent, fair immigration reform. The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is very concerned that the provisions described by the senators would extend and deepen harsh enforcement practices that have caused trauma and separation for immigration families, fostered racial profiling and led to tragic deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border of migrants seeking a better life.

Surely, the thousands of people who will rally in Washington tomorrow and in local areas in the coming days want immigration legislation that treats immigrants fairly, that recognizes their dignity and rights. Unfortunately, the blueprint outlined by the senators and praised by President Obama is not an outline for bold and enlightened legislation. As a "starting point" for real congressional engagement, it sets a low bar for the debate, placing harsh and failed enforcement strategies at its heart in hopes of drawing conservative support, regardless of the human rights consequences of such policies.

While still vague and without many details, the blueprint emphasizes increases in worksite and border enforcement as an apparent trade off for a "tough but fair" legalization program. It promises green cards for the "best and the brightest" -- more of the "brain drain" scenario -- and refers to so-called "circular migration" as a rationale to provide temporary worker visas to lower-skilled immigrants to work in the U.S. These workers would presumably save their earnings, send remittances home, and then return to their home countries. This is a recipe for disaster, and merely sets up the prospect of more exploited migrant workers with fewer rights, including workers with little access to green cards and who could eventually become undocumented.

The senators acknowledged that Americans support legal immigration, but did not mention changes needed in our core legal immigration program. Instead, they mention that in "20 years" Americans "will embrace more welcoming immigration policies" after the tide of undocumented has apparently been contained. We hope this does not mean that they are not prepared to support important changes to the current legal immigration program, emphasizing family unity, as part of the immigration package.

It's bad enough that the "tough but fair" legalization program they describe would further criminalize the undocumented and would create unnecessary barriers to eligible applicants.

When President Barack Obama took office in January 2008, we sent him an Open Letter joined by thousands of community members, rights advocates and allies in faith, labor and civil rights communities. We urged the new President to commit to principles of human rights. We asked him to end the raids, detentions and deportations that have caused so much hardship in our communities as a prerequisite to a genuine commitment to provide the undocumented with access to legal status.

We continue to urge the Administration and members of Congress to focus on core reforms:

• Suspend detentions and deportations while humanitarian policy alternatives are in place, and to reinstate due process;
• Support legalization without the onerous hurdles of past proposals that will limit applications;
• Uphold family reunification as a core principle of immigration policy, and expand and expedite legal immigration;
• End guestworker programs -- provide access to green cards;
• End the criminalization of immigrants, by repealing employer sanctions, and stopping the militarization of the border and local police collaboration programs;
• Strengthen labor law enforcement for all workers, regardless of citizenship or immigration status;
• Ensure immigrant access to services.

Immigration is not just a domestic policy issue; it is tied to policies that create displacement and forced migration. In committing to tackle immigration reform this time around, policymakers also need to ensure that U.S. foreign and economic policies promote global sustainable economic development and environments, job creation, and peace, so that migration is an option and not a last resort for economic survival.

Despite the President's and the senators' promises to move forward on immigration reform, we have no illusions about the difficult road ahead. But there is an important step that can be taken now. We urge the Administration to act swiftly to support immigrant community participation in this critical Census 2010. Suspend immigration enforcement activities so that immigrants, many fearful and unaware of the Census, are encouraged to complete and return their Census forms. This also affects their lives and the lives of us all over the next 10 years. (Read our letter to President Obama and DHS Secretary Napolitano on enforcement and the census here.)

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National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados
310 8th Street Suite 303
Oakland, CA 94607
Tel (510) 465-1984
Fax (510) 465-1885
www.nnirr.org

Share NNIRR's latest human rights report, click here Guilty by Immigration Status