On July 20, in a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
On July 20, in a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, along with more than 200 civil rights organizations, law enforcement officials and faith leaders nationwide denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) newly-established task force on Secure Communities (S-Comm). The Asian Law Caucus, which is also a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, also signed onto the letter.
On June 17, DHS convened a task force comprised of law enforcement officials, ICE agents and immigrant rights activists due to mounting criticism of S-Comm’s implementation, its negative impact on community policing and the civil and human rights violations caused by the program. However, the task force was established without public input and does not include immigrant community members. The task force’s scope also is limited to recommendations about minor traffic offenses, insufficient in scope to address the well-documented problems with the program.
By relying on local police to enforce immigration laws against the very communities they are charged with protecting, S-Comm sends a clear message to the immigrant community that any contact with the police could lead to their deportation, making it even less likely that immigrant witnesses and victims will come forward.
“APALC is concerned about S-Comm given our nearly three decades of assisting immigrant women who are survivors of domestic violence, where fear of deportation is a significant barrier that keeps many women from reporting the abuse that they suffer,” said Karin Wang, Vice President of Programs and Communications at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. “This deportation program gives these victims even more reason to distrust law enforcement and not report crimes.”
Despite ICE’s claim that the program keeps communities safe, it instead primarily served as a tool for meeting ICE’s deportation goals, sweeping some 400,000 immigrants into deportation proceedings per year – regardless of their guilt or innocence, the seriousness of their criminal background, the time that has passed since any criminal charges, their demonstrated rehabilitation or their community ties.
APALC believes that the creation of the Advisory Committee falls far short of addressing the mounting concerns of government officials, law enforcement agents, civil and human rights organizations, and the public, and calls for an immediate halt of the program in order to meaningfully address the complaints against Secure Communities and reverse course on this flawed policy. For a copy of the letter to ICE Director John Morton, please visit: http://www.thenyic.org/Letter-to-Morton/SComm/7-20-11.