Thursday, January 11, 2018

Signatures needed: Tell the Senate to block and resist Thomas Homan as head of ICE

The petition to the Senate reads:
“Stand up for the immigrants in your state and obstruct Donald Trump’s deportation agenda. Block and resist xenophobe Thomas Homan’s nomination as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director.”
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►

Tell the Senate: Block and resist Thomas Homan as head of ICE
Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are terrorizing immigrants and ripping apart American families. We cannot allow Congress to publicly green light Thomas Homan, the xenophobic extremist who runs Trump’s dangerous deportation machine.
Homan has been Trump’s acting ICE director since January 2017, but he is not new to the agency. During the Obama administration, he was the country’s top deporter.1 Now, he’s using his dangerous set of skills to help make Trump’s nightmare of mass deportations a reality. In his first three months as acting director, Homan increased the agency’s arrests of immigrants with no criminal background by 156 percent and unleashed his agents to hunt down immigrants at schools, courthouses and hospitals.2 Trump wants Homan to permanently lead ICE. The Senate must obstruct his plans.
Senators are responsible for protecting all of the people in their states, not just the ones who were born in the United States. Blocking Thomas Homan’s confirmation as the permanent head of ICE is a necessary part of that.
Homan is an anti-immigrant extremist. He believes that all undocumented immigrants are criminals who should live in fear.3 He also wants to take down sanctuary cities and recently called on the Department of Justice to indict elected officials who refuse to help with deportations.4
Homan, as Trump’s acting ICE director, has empowered his officers to use some of the most insidious tactics imaginable to hunt down immigrants. Homan’s ICE agents have:
  • Arrested and detained both parents of a sick infant on their way to the hospital.5
  • Arrested a 10 year-old girl with cerebral palsy on her way to the hospital.6
  • Arrested and detained a father outside of his daughter’s school.7
  • Arrested a transgender domestic abuse survivor at a courthouse while she was requesting a protective order against her abusive ex-partner.8
Immigration enforcement officers also recently locked up a disabled Dreamer and allegedly denied him pain medication and made fun of his disability.9
Trump and Homan are lying when they say that ICE is focused on getting violent criminals out of the country. ICE is a dangerous rogue agency. Its agents are harassing and attacking all immigrants.
Recently, more than 70 members of Congress signed a letter calling out the Department of Homeland Security for failing to investigate thousands of sexual assault complaints and other human rights violations filed by immigrants who were detained by ICE over the past decade. ICE agents have reportedly subjected immigrants in their custody to unnecessary strip searches, forced them to eat moldy produce and expired food, and denied pain medication to those with debilitating diseases.10 If the Senate gives Homan permanent jurisdiction over all ICE operations, it would add fuel to an already out-of-control fire and sanction the agency’s shady and abusive tactics. Democrats and Republicans of good conscience have the power to make sure that doesn’t happen. That's why we're teaming up with our friends at America's Voice to make sure they act.
Tell the Senate: Block and resist xenophobe Thomas Homan’s confirmation as ICE director. Click the link below to sign the petition.
Nicole Regalado
CREDO Action
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Lisa Rein, "Meet the man the White House has honored for deporting illegal immigrants," The Washington Post, April 27, 2016.
  2. Roque Planas and Elise Foley, " Deportations Of Noncriminals Rise As ICE Casts Wider Net," HuffPost, Dec. 5, 2017.
  3. Brett Samuels, "Trump taps Thomas Homan as ICE director," The Hill, Nov. 14, 2017.
  4. Josh Israel, "Acting ICE director wants to ignore Constitution, arrest local leaders for sanctuary city policies," ThinkProgress, Jan. 2, 2018.
  5. John Burnett, "Border Patrol Arrests Parents While Infant Awaits Serious Operation," NPR, Sept. 20, 2017.
  6. Marwa Eltagouri, "A 10-year-old immigrant was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. She was detained on the way." The Washington Post, Oct. 27, 2017.
  7. Ray Sanchez, "ICE arrests undocumented father taking daughter to California school," CNN, March 3, 2017.
  8. Jonathan Blitzer, "The woman arrested by ICE in a courthouse speaks out," The New Yorker, Feb. 23, 2017.
  9. Elise Foley, "Trump Administration Detaining DACA Recipient With Disability," HuffPost, Nov. 13, 2017.
  10. Anna Nunez, "Inhumane Human Rights Violations Found at U.S. Immigration Detention Centers," America's Voice, Dec. 19, 2017.

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