Immigrant Rights Supporters Chain Themselves Together to Protest Policy Resulting in 19 Immigrants Deported Every Week.
Where: Travis County Jail, 500 W. 10th Street, Austin, Texas
(Austin, Texas) – Days after launching their campaign against Secure Communities, or S-Comm, Austin immigrant rights advocates are blocking the doors of the Travis County Jail where immigrants are transported for deportation.
Protesters have chained themselves together in front of the exit authorities use to transfer detained undocumented immigrants to the Federal Building where they are held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Secure Communities (S-Comm) program.
According to data from ICE, an average of 19 immigrants per week have been deported from the county after being booked at the jail since the onset of S-Comm in 2009. The vast majority have been charged with only small crimes. Protesters want the Travis County Sheriff’s office to revisit its S-Comm enforcement policy and stop the deportation of members of the immigrant community.
Rocio Villalobos is one of the chained protesters, “The separation of families and ongoing deportations are a human rights violation. I want Sheriff Hamilton and our County Commissioners to reconsider the impact of S-Comm and put an end to a program destroying communities.”
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the vast majority of immigrants deported from Travis County were not convicted of serious crimes, many having committed not criminal offense or minor offenses such as driving without a license or expired registration stickers.
“The criminalization of our immigrant community must stop. When our local police force focuses on detaining and deporting non-criminal hardworking members of our community, they are not only separating families, they are also diverting time and financial resources from addressing real dangerous crime,” says Alejandro Caceres, Executive Director of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition.
According to a 2013 report from the Texas Commission on jail standards, the cost for holding an immigrant in the Travis County jail is $106.05 dollars per day with Travis County shouldering the cost associated with detaining immigrants through the S-Comm program.
Cities across the country, including Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington D.C, have rejected S-Comm citing the erosion of public trust, unfair criminalization of local communities, and unwillingness to allow DHS to federalize the local police departments.
Protesters are asking that Travis County officials stand with other progressive municipalities across the country and stop holding immigrants under the S-Comm policy.
“We want Travis County officials to know we will continue our campaign until the unfair and unjust practices of S-Comm are stopped,” says Caceres. “Travis County should be a progressive leader and adopt a policy, in partnership with the immigrant community, similar to that of the Newark, NJ where local police will not hold immigrants on behalf of ICE.”
Immigrant rights advocates met with the office of Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton last week where a request to halt deportations and review the effectiveness of the Secure Communities program in Travis County was rejected.
Follow live on twitter at #Not1More and via livestream at: http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/2014/02/03/austin/
