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Immigrant Rights

After 68 Days, Hunger Strikers In ICE Custody Are On The Brink Of Death

January 12, 2020 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. , , ,
New Orleans, Louisiana — With hunger strikes sweeping immigration jails across the country, two Indian asylum seekers protesting their incarceration at a remote Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in Louisiana are reportedly on the brink of death after refusing to eat or drink for 68 days, according to a volunteer who regularly visits the two men. The hunger strikers have a clear demand: to be released so they can pursue their asylum cases outside of jail. Medical staff at the LaSalle ICE Processing Center are force-hydrating both men, a painful and disturbing process that involves restraining the striker and forcing fluid through nasal passages with tubes, according to Michelle Graffeo, a volunteer with Freedom for Immigrants.

Palantir’s Technology Used In Mississippi ICE Raids

October 6, 2019 Mijente.net. , , ,
Palantir’s FALCON Tipline software tool, a tool it sells to the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was used in the Mississippi raids that swept the state in August, when 680 people were arrested en masse by ICE agents. The Mississippi workplace raids were the largest immigration raid in a decade and among the largest such raids in American history. The raids lead to the arrest, prosecution, and deportation of hundreds of workers, separating them from their families, and terrorizing the immigrant community at large. The raids took place during the first day of school for many in the state, resulting in children returning to empty homes, following the detention of both parents by ICE. At least two children were left alone for eight days after their parents did not return from work.

Former Customs And Border Protection Agent Blows The Whistle On Culture of Corruption

September 24, 2019 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
Customs and Border Protection is in the news with the recent article in the New York Times on the lowered morale among CBP officers. Much of it stems from public opposition to the detention and separation of families and mistreatment of adults and children, whether it be crowded cells with unsanitary conditions and inadequate food or sexual and physical abuse of children and deaths. Immigrant detention is being compared to concentration camps. We speak with Jenn Budd, a former CBP officer turned whistleblower, who speaks about the reality of CBP from the inadequate training to the compromising and corruption of officers, from the misogyny to the racism and what happens to officers who speak out. Budd describes the dysfunctional culture of the CBP in detail and shares her wisdom on whether or not CBP should continue to exist.

Protesters Demand Microsoft Stop Profiting Off Concentration Camps, Immigrant Raids, Deportations

September 15, 2019 Close the Camps NYC, Medium.com. , , ,
New York, NY, September 14, 2019 — Close the Camps NYC coalition led hundreds of protestors to peacefully march on the premiere retail location of Microsoft on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, staging a sit-in to demand that the tech giant stop allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use its technology in the racist campaign against immigrants and legal asylum seekers. This action comes one month after the Close the Camps NYC coalition successfully gathered hundreds of protestors who shut down the West Side Highway. That event publicly shamed RXR Realty LLC for allowing ICE to covertly operate among social justice organizations in its Starrett-Lehigh office building. “By knowingly and willingly providing technology support to ICE, Microsoft Corporation is colluding with ICE and its racist mission to tear apart families, and mistreat children” said Andy Ratto.

Lawsuit: ICE Disregards Migrants Medical, Mental Health Needs & Discriminates

August 25, 2019 Southern Poverty Law Center ,
A nationwide class-action lawsuit was filed today against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and others acting in their official capacities.  The lawsuit challenges the federal government’s failure to ensure detained immigrants receive appropriate medical and mental health care, its punitive use of segregation in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and its failure to ensure that detained immigrants with disabilities are provided accommodations and do not face discrimination as required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  

Wyatt Detention Captain Resigns After Driving Truck Into Protesters

August 18, 2019 By GoLocalProv News Team ,
Captain Thomas Woodworth has resigned from his position at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility -- after driving his pick-up truck into protesters outside the facility this week.  A vigil at the Wyatt Detention Center turned into a chaotic scene when a pickup truck came close to hitting protesters. That sparked a conflict between protestors and guards and Central Falls Police. Pepper spray was deployed -- there are reports of multiple injuries.

When ICE Hit Mississippi, Its Citizens Showed Up For Immigrant Families

August 15, 2019 By Adam Lynch, YES Magazine ,
The Mississippi immigration raid detained hundreds and left children stranded on the first day of school. It also evoked a massive humanitarian response in a state not traditionally friendly to immigrants. When federal agents engineered the nation’s largest single-state immigration raid at multiple chicken processing plants in Mississippi, a scrappy network of immigrant activists knew their work was about to get much harder. Mississippi has never been a hotbed for immigration advocacy, despite a growing immigrant population working in its food processing and hospitality industries.

Jewish Groups Are Taking Action From Coast To Coast To Close The Camps

August 11, 2019 Popular Resistance. , , ,
Jewish Communities are holding "Close The Camps" actions across the country to protest the detention of migrants in the United States, the current immigration policies and mistreatment of migrants seeking asylum. On July 30, Never Again movement activists blockaded the Minnesota Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in St. Paul for over three hours. Twenty seven were arrested. On August 2, Jewish Activists marched and rallied in Portland Maine. On August 5, Jewish activists protested at the GEO Group office in Los Angeles. The GEO Group is one of the private corporations that profits by running migrant detention centers. More protests are planned in the coming weeks.

Immigrant Rights Activists Protest Inside And Outside Of The Democratic Debates

August 1, 2019 By Vera Parra, Movimiento Cosecha , ,
Members of the Movimiento Cosecha protested during the presidential debates of the Democratic Party. They protested outside with blockades and inside interrupting former Vice President Biden. Immigrant rights leaders are calling on all Democratic candidates to commit to stopping all deportations on day one in office. Cosecha is calling on Democratic candidates to commit to ending all deportations on their first day in office.

Stopping Trump’s Immigrant Abuse Requires Understanding Obama

July 21, 2019 By Roqayah Chamseddine, In These Times , , ,
Those fitting the national security state's classification of “illegal alien” are subjected to violent administrative detention processes and a myriad of enforcement procedures intended to discourage unauthorized border crossings, including family separation. And now they face Trump's renewed threat to unleash sweeping deportation raids this weekend. Trump’s spectacular crackdown—while an escalation—is not new: These abuses are an enduring legacy of the Obama presidency, which—along with previous administrations—laid the groundwork for the policies being condemned today.

Actions To #CloseTheCamps Escalate

July 19, 2019 Bruna Bouhid-Sollod, Jasmine Nazarett and Juliet Barbara, United We Dream. , , ,
With billions from Congress and zero oversight measures, the deportation force of ICE and CBP continues to open up detention camps across the country to incarcerate immigrants and children. In spite of new horrors being revealed almost every day, conditions in these camps worsen, no perpetrators have been held accountable and the people of color being tortured in them have not been released.  We must stop the criminalization of immigrants, family separation, and the killing of asylum seekers.  We must lead with values and respect for human lives by defunding these agencies and ending the mass incarceration of children and immigrants. 

Stop Immigrant Arrests, Close The Camps, Transform Immigration Policy

July 7, 2019 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance , , ,
Public awareness of the brutal repression against immigrants seeking entry to the United States, the reasons for their migration, and terrorism against immigrants living in the US are reaching levels that make them hard to ignore. The current immigration crisis is self-created and bi-partisan. Although the Trump administration's rhetoric is extreme, it reflects policies that have developed over a long period of time. Under Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a person has “the right to leave any country, including his or her own, and to return to his or her country at any time.” Until the twentieth century, immigrants were welcomed into the United States. Immigrant and slave labor built many of the institutions and much of the infrastructure in the US. 

Migrants Denounce ‘Psychological Abuse’ in US Detention Centers

July 5, 2019 Staff, Telesur , ,
U.S. authorities recently ​​​​​recognized extreme overcrowding and health risks at Border Patrol centers. Central Americans allege they were victims of "psychological abuse" by U.S. federal authorities at detention centers in Arizona, which human rights defenders have described as "concentration camps." Javier Torres, a Honduran father who crossed the border with his wife and his 5-year old son, stayed at three detention centers, where he was kept in extremely cold rooms, with music at full volume, permanently lit intense lights, amidst inmates wearing orange uniforms.

Federal Prosecutors To Retry Humanitarian Who Gave Water To Migrants

July 4, 2019 By Alex Devoid, Arizona Daily Star ,
Federal prosecutors announced they will retry a border-aid worker accused of smuggling migrants three weeks after jurors couldn’t agree whether Scott Warren committed any crimes.  The jurors deadlocked 8-4 on three felony charges, including one charge of conspiring to smuggle two Central American men and two charges for harboring them.  In a Tuesday morning court hearing, prosecutors announced they would retry him on the two counts of harboring, but will dismiss the charge of conspiracy to smuggle. Warren's retrial date is set for Nov. 12. 

Immigrant Leaders Call For ‘Driving Without Fear’ Campaign On May 1st, 2019.

April 4, 2019 By Cata Santiago and Lucia Allain, Cosecha   
Leaders of state and countywide campaigns across have come together to launch a national “Driving Without Fear” campaign and are calling for coordinated actions across the country this May 1st, 2019. Across the country, immigrant leaders are demanding that states pass legislation that would allow immigrant families to apply for driver licenses. In the absence of any meaningful chance to win legalization at the federal level, “Driving Without Fear” campaigns are gaining momentum across the country.
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