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San Diego Protesters In Solidarity With Migrant Caravan

March 15, 2021 Huitzilopochtli Marron, Liberation News. , , ,
On March 13, the Party for Socialism and Liberation hosted a march and banner drop beginning at Larsen Field, in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, next to the Tijuana-San Diego border. Other organizations in attendance included Socialist Alternative, Immigrant Justice League, San Diego Sunrise Movement, ANSWER San Diego, and other supporters in the community. The demonstration was held in solidarity with the migrant caravan making its way to the border through Mexico. Thousands of migrants are currently fleeing violence and persecution that are a direct result of U.S. intervention in Central America.  Just miles from San Ysidro is the Otay Mesa Detention Center. The OMDC is the site where the first Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee died from COVID-19. 

Biden Spent Black History Month Deporting Black Immigrants

February 19, 2021 Tina Vásquez, Prism. , , ,
In the days it took to pull together this Q&A with two leaders in the immigrant rights movement—Haitian Bridge Alliance’s Guerline Jozef and the UndocuBlack Network’s Patrice Lawrence—the federal government deported more than 70 asylum-seekers to Haiti, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children. Haiti is in the midst of political turmoil and advocates are calling these deportations “death flights.” Soon, hundreds more Black immigrants are expected to be deported, including 135 Haitian immigrants. Most of them are families. While the coverage of these deportations hasn’t been extensive, what does exist largely frames the large-scale deportation of Black immigrants as an example of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operating as a “rogue agency” that is refusing to comply with the Biden administration’s orders...

Portland Indigenous Land Defenders Address Targeted Violence

February 15, 2021 Carissa Dez, Village Portland. , , ,
On the early morning of February 5th in downtown Portland, members of Oregon’s Indigenous Tribes held a press conference at Portland City Hall among a large showing of community. They addressed the violent targeting and violations of their right to protest and practice religious ceremonies by federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and Portland police officers. This targeting took place while Tribal members were holding an Indigenous religious ceremony to honor ICE detainees and commemorate the lives of those lost while in federal custody. A press release from Indigenous Bloc quoted an unnamed Oregon Tribal who said that it is their constitutional right to protest— but also their duty to keep a vigil “as a community striving for liberation together”.

Migrant Deportations Continue Despite Biden’s Policies

February 4, 2021 Telesur English. , , ,
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to deport migrants despite president Joe Biden's 100-day moratorium on deporting most people in the U.S. without authorization. This decision was barred by a federal judge in Texas last week. During the first days of Biden's administration, ICE has deported hundreds of immigrants, including 269 people, to Guatemala and Honduras last Friday. The agency has been accused of violating human rights as a coalition of immigrant groups denounced that Cameroonian asylum seekers were tortured to be forced to approve their deportations.

Hunger Strikes At Three New Jersey Prisons

January 9, 2021 Sara Flounders, Workers.org. , , ,
The filthy conditions, indefinite incarceration and escalating COVID infections have touched off desperate hunger strikes at three New Jersey county jails. Each  jail operates as a prison-for-profit, renting space at $120 a day for ICE to jail out-of-state migrant detainees. The N.J. counties use the contracts to generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually. Immigrant detention has become a moneymaking “cash cow” raising more than $87 million in revenue. There are four immigration detention facilities in New Jersey — Bergen, Essex, and Hudson County jails, and the Elizabeth Detention Center, run by CoreCivic, the private prison-for-profit company.

Framing Climate Change as a “National Security Priority” Isn’t A Clever Maneuver To Get People To Care

November 25, 2020 Adam H. Johnson, Medium. , , ,
On November 23, President-elect Joe Biden announced that former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry will serve as special envoy on climate and have a seat on the National Security Council. Kerry immediately followed the news with a tweet that declared, “America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is.” As laid out in Episode 122 of Citations Needed (the podcast I co-host), this “national security” approach to climate is loaded down with contradictions, PR spin, and potential dangers.

US Halts Deportations Of Women Who Allege Medical Abuse In ICE Detention

November 25, 2020 Julia Conley, Commondreams. , , , ,
Women who have spoken out about alleged abuse by a gynecologist while in U.S. custody won a reprieve Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to halt their deportations until President Donald Trump is nearly out of office.  The motion filed by the DOJ must still be approved by a federal judge, but the department reached an agreement with the lawyers of several women who say Dr. Mahendra Amin abused them and subjected them to invasive procedures without their consent while they were being held at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.

Why The US Still Needs To Abolish ICE

October 16, 2020 Silky Shah, NBC News. , , ,
In 2018, one of the biggest demands of immigrant rights activists was “Abolish ICE.” The rallying cry intensified in part due to the Trump administration’s border policy, which separated parents from children and horrified the world. Just a few days ago, leaked tapes of the first lady exposed her indifference toward the policy in 2018, and reminded us of the administration’s complete disdain of the humanity of people seeking asylum. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is still targeting and detaining hundreds of thousands of people, and separating loved ones from their families and communities.

Hootsuite Retreats From Deal With ICE

September 25, 2020 Douglas Quan, The Star. , , ,
The decision by Vancouver-based tech giant Hootsuite to abruptly pull out of a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency following internal and public backlash should put corporate leaders on notice — be vigilant about who you do business with, experts say. “There’s no question that corporate social and environmental responsibility issues are increasingly getting more attention — not only by business leaders, but company stakeholders, including employees,” said Christie Stephenson, executive director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at UBC.

New York: Protest At ICE Headquarters Over Forced Hysterectomies

September 18, 2020 Graeme Massie, Independent. , , ,
A security guard brandished her gun at demonstrators who forced their way into ICE headquarters in New York City to protest claims of ‘mass hysterectomies’ being performed on immigrant women. The video of the female guard pointing the weapon at Abolish ICE protestors as they chanted inside the city’s Jacob K Javits Federal Building in Manhattan was posted on social media. The guard reportedly works for private security firm Paragon Systems, which provides protection for the building that also houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement and FBI offices.

ICE Guards ‘Systematically’ Sexually Assault Detainees

August 15, 2020 Lomi Kriel, Pro Publica. , , , ,
Guards in an immigrant detention center in El Paso sexually assaulted and harassed inmates in a “pattern and practice” of abuse, according to a complaint filed by a Texas advocacy group urging the local district attorney and federal prosecutors to conduct a criminal investigation. The allegations, detailed in a filing first obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, maintain that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — often in areas of the detention center not visible to security cameras.

Deaths In Immigration Detention Are At A Record High

August 13, 2020 Katy Murdza, Immigration Impact. , , , ,
Two men died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on August 5. One of the men died in a hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, while the other died in his cell of a massive intercranial hemorrhage. These tragedies increased the total deaths in ICE custody this fiscal year to 17, the highest number since 2006. Many—if not all—of the deaths that occur in ICE custody are avoidable. More than twice as many people have died in ICE custody this year than last year. Unfortunately, with 1,065 active COVID-19 cases in ICE detention, that number will likely increase before the fiscal year ends in September.

GEO Group’s ICE Jail Lies To Immigration Lawyer

July 19, 2020 Alex Binder, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Aurora, CO — On the morning of June 30, 2020, Pablo Mackleen Grijalva’s lawyer tried to contact him at the GEO Group’s ICE jail where he is detained, but to her shock, the officer on the phone told her he was not there. She immediately called Kesha Davalos Grijalva, Mackleen Grijalva’s wife, and told her what the officer said. After calling the jail a second time, an officer confirmed that Mackleen Grijalva was going to be deported that day with others in the weekly deportation van. When Davalos Grijalva heard the deportation news, she called her friends and family and a group of them decided to drive to the small airport near the Denver International Airport (DIA) where deportation planes depart.

How Local Leaders Can Ensure Immigrant Justice During COVID-19

May 24, 2020 the Vera Institute of Justice. , , ,
Our immigration system is on the threshold of a new crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. People in detention face high risks of infection from the close quarters of facilities, shelters, and courtrooms, and they lack adequate sanitation, health care, and protective measures. The frequent transfer of people throughout the immigration detention system also contributes to the rapid spread of the virus. Moreover, unlike in criminal court, immigrants facing deportation do not have the right to a lawyer even if they cannot afford one, leaving most without access to legal representation. As local leaders seek to protect immigrant communities, safeguarding access to legal services for everyone is of critical importance.

Federal Judge Orders ICE To Release Four Immigrants At Risk Of COVID-19

April 10, 2020 The Lawyer's Committee For Civil Rights. , , ,
San Francisco - A federal judge has ordered the release of four immigrants detained in two ICE detention centers in California on the grounds that their age and medical conditions make them especially vulnerable to the potentially fatal COVID-19 infection. “None of these [individuals] is in a position to meaningfully limit his exposure to COVID-19 while at Yuba or Mesa Verde,” Judge Chesney affirmed in a ruling Wednesday. The judge’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, and Lakin & Wille LLP. “Immigration detention is unnecessary generally, but now with COVID it is putting people at risk,” said Shelly Clements, the wife of Charles Joseph, one of the plaintiffs ordered released. “I feel blessed that my husband is coming home.”
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