Tell Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey: No Slush Fund for ICE and CBP

No slush fund for ICE and CBP

The petition to Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. Nita Lowey reads: "Defund hate. Cut 302(b) discretionary funding for ICE and CBP." Add your name:

Every year at the start of the budget process, the House Committee on Appropriations allocates a pot of non-military discretionary funding to each of the committee's 12 subcommittees, including Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP's budgets.1 Normally, the committee chair divides any increase in this slush fund money to each subcommittee equally. But nothing is normal right now.  As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Democrat Rep. Nita Lowey has the power to cut funding for ICE and CBP. We need to make sure she uses it. As chair, Rep. Lowey is holding the purse strings. We must make clear to her that progressives are watching and demand that she cut funding for ICE and CBP now and at every step of the budget process. Tell Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey: No slush fund for ICE and CBP. Click here to sign the petition. Donald Trump is waging war on immigrants and refugees. Clear, decisive action from Democrats in the House of Representatives is one of our strongest lines of defense. Trump is going to extremes to fund his anti-immigrant agenda. He stole from FEMA to supercharge ICE.2 He declared a fake national emergency to steal billions of dollars for his border wall even after Congress approved $4 billion to build it.3 And just yesterday, Trump's pick to run DHS announced his plan to inflate the department's immigration enforcement budget before Congress even begins fiscal year 2020 budget negotiations.4 ICE tried to up its budget by manipulating the negotiations process last year, but CREDO members and our allies stopped it from happening. This year, we're in an even better position to fight back. Democrats took back the House of Representatives in November because progressive voters turned out en masse. They sent the youngest and most diverse group of representatives to Congress with a mandate to confront Trump's white supremacy head on and push for policies that put people before politics and corporate interests. Advocating that Democrats who now hold key leadership positions do everything they can to defund Trump's deportation force and racist agenda is an opportunity we cannot afford to squander. That's why we're mobilizing earlier in the budget process. Grassroots activism at this stage is very uncommon, which means that organizing now can have a big impact. Add your name to demand that Rep. Lowey stand with us and restrict discretionary funding for ICE and CBP. Tell Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey: No slush fund for ICE and CBP. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no-ice-slush-fund?t=9&akid=32440%2E3130208%2EK9dN2d - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Detention Watch Network, "Tell Chairwoman Lowey to Cut Funding for ICE & CBP," accessed April 30, 2019. Camila Domonoske, "Trump Administration Transferred $9.8 Million From FEMA To ICE," NPR, Sept. 12, 2018. Peter Baker, "Trump Declares a National Emergency, and Provokes a Constitutional Clash," The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2019. Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands and Phil Mattingly, "Acting homeland security secretary says administration will ask Congress for more border funds this year," CNN, April 30, 2019.

Tell Congress: Reject Ronald Vitiello's nomination as head of ICE

There are thousands of children still in detention at this moment thanks to Ronald Vitiello

Petition to the Senate: "Reject Ronald Vitiello's nomination to become permanent director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement." Add your name:

The Senate is poised to approve Ronald Vitiello – one of the key players in the Trump policy of tearing families apart – as the permanent head of ICE.1 Even Republican members of Congress saw through Trump's fear-mongering and embarrassed him by rejecting his declaration of a state of emergency at the southern border. So now, the Trump administration is fostering and playing up a sense of crisis in order to justify his authoritarian power grab – orchestrating a nightmare scenario by misallocating resources for political gain. The Senate could vote on Vitiello's nomination any day now, but some Republicans are wavering after the ICE employees' union expressed concerns. We need to speak out now. Tell the Senate: Reject Ronald Vitiello's nomination as permanent head of ICE. Click here to sign the petition. There are thousands of children still in detention at this moment thanks to Ronald Vitiello. We've watched ICE tear gas mothers, children and even toddlers in diapers, children die of severe neglect in ICE and CBP custody, and border agents turn away thousands of migrant refugees escaping violence. We've also watched the Trump administration sabotage the asylum process, divert funds, and illegally deploy the military to the border – all to manufacture a sense of crisis. Ronald Vitiello, as the acting director of ICE since June 2018, is a key cog in this despicable campaign who:2 Implemented and defended Trump's family separation policy. As acting head of ICE, he carried out Trump's orders. He tried to downplay and minimize the horror of separating children from their families in media appearances, and told senators that the policy would continue. Characterized immigrants in a racist way as bearers of crime and disease and called Democrats the “NeoKlanist Party.” Vitiello also participated in an event hosted by FAIR, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group. Oversaw an abusive and deliberately disorganized agency. No person who lost track of children and cannot locate and return them to their family deserves to stay in their job. Even the ICE employees' union – no friend to immigrants – expressed concerns about Vitiello's competence to lead the agency. It is awful that the concerns of the ICE employees' union bothered some Republican senators more than Vitiello's role in separating families – but it gives us a window to prevent him from being confirmed if we act now. Tell the Senate: Reject Ronald Vitiello's nomination as permanent head of ICE. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/vitiello-ice?t=9&akid=32117%2E3130208%2EsrFR6J - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Geneva Sands, "ICE director nominee in limbo after criticism from union," CNN, Feb. 13, 2019. America's Voice, "America’s Voice to Senate: Reject Nomination of Ronald Vitiello – Defending and Implementing Family Separation Should Be Disqualifying," Nov. 15, 2018.

Tell Congress: Pass the Families Belong Together Act

The petition to Congress reads: "Stand up for survivors of Donald Trump's cruel zero-tolerance and family separation policies. Pass the Families Belong Together Act." Add your name:

Ripping immigrant children from their families is an unconscionable act.  Yet multiple Trump officials revealed last week that they failed to raise any flags or concerns about this cruel policy. They appear to have carried it out without hesitation.1  Until Congress holds every Trump enabler accountable and the government frees and reunites every family it tore apart, this crisis will continue to plague the lives of immigrant survivors and the American people. Rep. Joaquin Castro and Sen. Richard Blumenthal recently introduced legislation that would begin to repair the damage Trump's zero-tolerance and family separation policies inflicted on asylum seekers.2 Speak out now to demand that Congress pass this important bill. Tell Congress: Pass the Families Belong Together Act. Click here to sign the petition. A horrific new report just revealed that thousands of immigrant children have been sexually abused in detention centers over the past four years. It also showed that complaints of abuse sharply increased when Trump took office.3 This report further proves that ICE and CBP are dangerous rogue agencies. They already have long records of abuse, mismanagement and corruption, made worse by Trump's racist regime. No one – especially children – belongs in ICE custody. Despite all this, a majority of Democrats just joined Republicans in passing a DHS budget bill that expands this violent deportation force. Democrats need to do better. Passing the Families Belong Together Act is a step in the right direction. It would give many immigrant survivors of Trump's zero-tolerance and family separation policies the opportunity to:4 Return to the United States and get their green card. Qualify for citizenship so that they can fully access medical treatment in the United States. The bill would also increase funding for federal programs to educate immigrant children and parents on their legal rights and help facilitate their access to counsel. Even though the Families Belong Together Act has no chance of becoming law under this administration, it's important that we build momentum for it now and force every member of Congress to make their positions clear. Will they stand with a racist administration that is escalating state-sanctioned child abuse or immigrants and the progressive allies who have their backs? Add your name now to make sure Democrats and Republicans of good conscience do the right thing. Tell Congress: Pass the Families Belong Together Act. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/families-belong-together-act?t=9&akid=31793%2E3130208%2EtFSqOU - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Priscilla Alvarez, "Five takeaways from Tuesday's family separation hearing," CNN, Feb. 26, 2019. Rep. Joaquin Castro, "Castro & Blumenthal Introduce Legislation to Address the Family Separation Crisis," Jan. 30, 2019. Matthew Haag, "Thousands of Immigrant Children Said They Were Sexually Abused in U.S. Detention Centers, Report Says," The New York Times, Feb. 27, 2019. Rep. Castro, "Castro & Blumenthal Introduce Legislation to Address the Family Separation Crisis."

Tell Alex Azar and Kirstjen Nielsen: Let the children go. Stop sharing sponsor data with ICE

The petition to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reads: "Stop helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement target and detain immigrants who apply to sponsor children in detention. End data sharing between the Office of Refugee Resettlement and ICE." Add your name:

Some believe that the greatness of a nation is determined by how it treats its children. By this measure, the United States is failing. There are still more than 14,000 immigrant children in DHS custody, and instead of placing them with willing sponsors, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is making sure many of them stay behind bars. Over the summer, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen enacted a data-sharing agreement that weaponized ORR.1 ORR now shares the biometric and background check data of any person who applies to sponsor a child with ICE, preventing many family members from stepping forward for fear of being hunted down and detained by Trump's deportation force. Sens. Gillibrand, Hirono, Booker, Merkley, Feinstein and Blumenthal are calling on Azar and Nielsen to end this cruel policy. Add your name now to help turn up the pressure. Tell Alex Azar and Kirstjen Nielsen: Let the children go. Stop sharing sponsor data with ICE. Click here to sign the petition. At the height of the family separation crisis over the summer, Azar enacted an ORR policy that forced potential immigrant sponsors and everyone in their household to go through an extreme vetting process and then shared the data it collected with ICE. As a result, ORR is now an extension of Trump's deportation force. Thousands of refugee children locked up in inhumane detention facilities are serving longer sentences because many people are too afraid to sponsor them. The average stay in detention for unaccompanied minors increased from 40 days in 2016 to 59 days in 2018.2 The total number of children DHS and ORR are detaining at once is at an all-time high.3 The effects of detention on children are devastating. The trauma of being ripped from family members and forced to live in overcrowded camps and prisons can have debilitating lifelong effects on a child's health and well-being. HHS says its focus is the health, safety and best interest of the child. Yet, the nation watched in horror as thousands of children suffered in isolation and inhumane conditions in the tent camps of Tornillo, Texas, without adequate access to legal services. ORR recently announced a minor change to its vetting policy, eliminating the requirement that household members of sponsors be fully vetted before a child is reunited with a parent or loved one.4 That is not enough. As long as ICE remains at the center of ORR’s reunification process, children will be in harm’s way. Add your name now to help us and our friends at the National Immigrant Justice Center shine a bright light on the dangerous collaboration between ORR and ICE, and demand that Azar and Nielsen end it now. Tell Alex Azar and Kirstjen Nielsen: Let the children go. Stop sharing sponsor data with ICE. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/children_orr_ice?t=7&akid=31033%2E3130208%2EVrHzN_ Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Victoria Bekiempis, "Refugee agency accused of helping deport relatives of migrant children," The Guardian, Nov. 28, 2018. Colleen Long, "The Trump Administration Reverses Its Policy on Migrant Children's Sponsors," TIME, Dec. 19, 2018. Ibid. Miriam Jordan, "Thousands of Migrant Children Could Be Released After Sponsor Policy Change," The New York Times, Dec. 18, 2018.

Signatures needed: No wall. No new family prisons

The petition to Congress reads: "No wall. No new family prisons. Block the Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act (H.R. 7059)." Add your name:

Republican extremist Rep. Kevin McCarthy is trying to advance his political career on the backs of immigrant children and families. Rep. Kevin McCarthy just introduced a draconian border bill that panders to the far-right Freedom Caucus and his party's racist base to boost his bid to become speaker of the house. McCarthy's extreme bill would hand Donald Trump billions for his border wall, supercharge ICE and worsen the country's mass incarceration crisis.1 We need to make clear to every member of Congress that a vote for this bill is a vote to help McCarthy and Republicans build political power by throwing children and families in jail. Tell Congress: No wall. No new family prisons. Block Trump Republicans' latest border bill. Click here to sign the petition. Blind loyalty to the white supremacist in the White House and a willingness to enable state-sanctioned child abuse and indefinite immigrant incarceration seem to be the new litmus test for Republicans, especially those vying for leadership positions within the Party. The Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act is a clear attempt by McCarthy to prove that he is racist and cruel enough to lead. No member of Congress should support this hateful bill. The bill would:2 Appropriate $23 billion for the construction of Trump's border wall and new family prisons. Penalize sanctuary states and cities that prevent ICE and CBP from violating people's Fourth Amendment rights and detaining them without due process. Allow DHS to detain immigrants indefinitely. Expand the definition of illegal reentry to include people seeking asylum at the border. Empower ICE to conduct sweeps of Latinx and immigrant communities and detain anyone who seems in any way connected to a gang member, including people with no criminal record. Any member of Congress who is willing to hurt children, imprison families and punish states that uphold the Constitution for political gain is unfit to govern, let alone lead a chamber of Congress. To protect our democracy and the soul of the country, we must make sure Democrats and Republicans of good conscience do everything they can to block McCarthy's cruel border bill. Tell Congress: No wall. No new family prisons. Block Trump Republicans' latest border bill. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block_mccarthy_borderbill?t=7&akid=30435%2E3130208%2EeqSqjo - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Dean DeChiaro, "McCarthy Bill Would Fund Border Wall, Boost Speaker Bid," Roll Call, Oct. 15, 2018. Melanie Zanona, "McCarthy introduces bill to fully fund Trump's border wall," The Hill, Oct. 12, 2018.

Resistance needed: Trump and Republicans are trying to build more family prisons

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The petition to Congress reads: "Immigrant families belong together and free. Block any bill that gives Trump the power to imprison immigrant families indefinitely and build more family prisons, including the FAMILIES Act (S. 3478)." Add your name:

Reports of stomach-churning child abuse in detention centers should compel any lawmaker with a conscience to stop Donald Trump's xenophobic attacks, but Republican extremist Sen. Ron Johnson just introduced legislation that would push the United States over the cliff of cruelty.1 The FAMILIES Act would add more family prisons to Trump's deportation and mass incarceration machine and worsen the crisis of corruption and abuse at the border. Democrats and Republicans of good conscience need to do everything they can to block this bill. Tell Congress: No more Trump internment camps. Block legislation that would expand family prisons. Click here to sign the petition. Sen. Johnson introduced this cruel bill just as news broke that the Trump administration lost track of nearly 1,500 immigrant children it placed in detention facilities and foster care this year.2 This latest horrifying development is yet another example of how Trump's extreme anti-immigrant policies are made worse by his administration's incompetence. The ineptitude of Trump's ICE, CBP and DOJ was on full display this week. At a Senate hearing on Trump's latest proposal to nullify the Flores decree, a settlement that puts time limits on imprisoning children, Trump officials dodged fundamental questions and failed to defend the administration's push to expand family and child detention. ICE officials said that they didn't even bother to read warnings from agency doctors about the trauma detention inflicts on children.3 ICE's chief of arrests and deportations compared family prisons to "summer camps," again.4 Jeff Sessions' acting deputy assistant attorney general refused to comment on whether child abuse at detention centers would count as federal crime.5 These officials are either willfully ignorant Trump loyalists or completely incompetent. Either way, Congress should be putting checks on ICE and CBP, not empowering them to do more harm. Sen. Johnson's bill would allow Trump and Republicans to build more family prisons, make family detention mandatory and waive the polygraph requirement for many border patrol applicants, opening the door for more corruption and abuse. We must join together now to keep the pressure on Congress and demand that it reject any bill that would give Trump the power to imprison more immigrant families indefinitely. Will you add your name now? Tell Congress: No more Trump internment camps. Block legislation that would expand family prisons. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/stop_family_detention?t=7&akid=30124%2E3130208%2EM3KW1u - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Sen. Ron Johnson, "S.3478," introduced Sept. 18, 2018. Ron Nixon, "U.S. Loses Track of Another 1,500 Migrant Children, Investigators Find," The New York Times, Sept. 18, 2018. Amanda Michelle Gomez, "Trump officials claim they are unaware of health risks associated with child detention," ThinkProgress, Sept. 18, 2018. Tal Kopan, "ICE official stands by comparing detention centers to 'summer camp,' won't say if he'd send his kids to one," CNN, Sept. 18, 2018. Ibid.

Call To Action: Tell our Pima County Board of Supervisors: End Operation Stonegarden, and remove ICE from the Pima County Jail

TOMORROW – PLEASE ATTEND.

Tell our Pima County Board of Supervisors: End Operation Stonegarden, and remove ICE from the Pima County Jail.

Tuesday August 7th
130 W. Congress Street
Press Conference 8:30am, followed by the Board of Supervisors Meeting at 9:00am

On Tuesday, August 7th, the Pima County Board of Supervisors will be discussing the release of Operation Stonegarden funds to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. These funds are given to local law enforcement agencies in border regions, by the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants. They are granted explicitly for local police and sheriff’s departments to further collaborate with Federal agencies such as ICE and Border Patrol, on matters of immigration enforcement.

In addition, and of equal importance, Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier made the decision in May of 2017, to invite Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the Pima County Jail to staff their own permanent desk. This decision has streamlined the process for local law enforcement to hand over undocumented residents, including mothers and fathers, to ICE quickly, without the need for detainer requests.

Let us be explicitly clear: the acceptance of Operation Stonegarden funds by Pima County has been separating families in our community since 2004. Giving ICE a desk in our jail, makes that separation even more commonplace.We can no longer accept policies that racially target migrant families within our communities.

We will be packing the meeting as we team up with other Free The Children Coalition partners. We highly encourage our members to speak during the Call to the Audience portion of the Supervisors Meeting, but either way, your presence is an appreciated difference-maker.

JOIN US!

-Your Justice Alliance Team

Microsoft got the message about enabling ICE

To this day, the future is uncertain for the 463 children whose parents were deported by ICE without them. Their parents came to the US for the dream of a better life, and many have fled violence in their home country. Now hundreds of parents have been deported back to potential danger with no real hope of reuniting with their children.

So last week, we took the fight to end tech companies’ collaboration with ICE's deportation machine straight to Microsoft’s door.

Together with partners like Color of Change, the Tech Workers Coalition, Fight for the Future, and Coworker, we hosted actions at Microsoft offices in cities across the country to deliver a joint petition with 300,000 signatures from members like you. But that’s not all: a Microsoft employee hand-delivered a USB with the petition—including 500 signatures from Microsoft employees—to CEO Satya Nadella at an annual gathering at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA headquarters.

Nadella definitely got the message that Microsoft’s ongoing contract with ICE can’t be swept under the rug and hurts real people. And in case 300,000 signatures didn’t do the trick, we teamed up with Color of Change to crowdsource this amazing mobile billboard that we drove around Microsoft’s headquarters during the protest.

Together with a coalition of groups representing millions of people, we’re showing Microsoft that the voices of the people will speak louder than the $19 million contract Microsoft has with ICE.

Watch and share this video of our day of action on Facebook to help keep the heat on Microsoft!

Not on Facebook? No problem, click here to watch on Youtube.

The pressure is working: Nadella was quick to downplay Microsoft’s contract with ICE, claiming in a statement that it was “not aware” of its services being used to help separate families at the border.

That’s quite a change of tune from earlier this year when the company boasted online that Azure, a Microsoft cloud computing service with deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification, was “mission-critical” to ICE.

It's a matter of life or death for so many migrant families in this moment. Deported parents worry if they will ever see or hold their infants again. They worry about who will take care of their kids if and when they are released from government detention centers. They worry about surviving another day to be able to search and fight for their separated love ones, some too young to speak.

Last week’s day of action was a crucial step in holding tech companies like Microsoft accountable for their complicity in Trump’s war on immigrants. But we will not back down until we take this crucial cog out of ICE’s deportation machine.

- SumOfUs

More information:

Microsoft Employees Question C.E.O. Over Company’s Contract With ICE, New York Times, July 26 2018.

Tell Congress: Stop Trump's mass incarceration agenda. Pass the Detention Oversight Not Expansion Act

The petition to Congress reads: "Don't let the Trump administration make the country's mass incarceration crisis even worse. Pass the Detention Oversight Not Expansion Act (S. 2849/H.R. 5820) to block the construction of more immigrant detention centers and increase ICE's oversight and accountability."

No more Trump internment camps. The Trump regime already jails up to 40,000 immigrants a day – including children – in inhumane detention facilities across the country.1 With Trump's DOJ criminally prosecuting all undocumented immigrants, that number will skyrocket. We cannot sit by while Trump's racist regime throws more Brown and Black people behind bars. One way Congress can block Trump's mass incarceration agenda is to stop him from expanding and building more immigrant detention centers. Sen. Kamala Harris' Detention Oversight Not Expansion Act (DONE Act) does exactly that. Speak out now to demand that Congress pass this important bill. Tell Congress: Stop Trump's mass incarceration agenda. Pass the Detention Oversight Not Expansion Act now. Click her to sign the petition. ICE’s mismanagement of the immigration detention system has resulted in a network of hundreds of jails riddled with reports of abuse and human rights violations. Immigrant detainees have filed complaints about excessive solitary confinement, physical abuse, medical neglect that has led to death, and sexual assault in ICE run prisons.2,3 In the vast majority of cases, immigration officers carry out these abuses with relative impunity. More than 95 percent of all cases of alleged misconduct have resulted in “no action taken” by the federal government.4 That is unacceptable. Immigrant detention facilities are also cesspools of corruption. The ACLU is suing a detention center in Georgia for forcing immigrant detainees to work for basic necessities like food and soap.5 No member of Congress should help Trump sanction or expand these horrific immigrant internment camps.6 It's important to remember that before Trump, some undocumented immigrants were free until their day in court, staying with family members or sponsors. Now, Trump has given ICE agents a mandate to jail every undocumented immigrant at the border and the DOJ a directive to criminally prosecute them in mass trials. That's why Trump wants to expand and build more prisons. The DONE Act would obstruct Trump's racist immigration policies by blocking the expansion and construction of new immigrant detention facilities and increasing ICE's oversight and accountability.7 Speak out now to demand that Congress backs this bill. Tell Congress: Stop Trump's mass incarceration agenda. Pass the Detention Oversight Not Expansion Act now. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/done_act?t=7&akid=29399%2E3130208%2EBY-72Q - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Democracy Now, "Investigation: Substandard Medical Care in ICE Detention Is Killing Immigrants, Endangering Lives," June 22, 2018. Alice Speri, "Detained, Then Violated," The Intercept, April 11, 2018. Anna Núñez, "Inhumane Human Rights Violations Found at U.S. Immigration Detention Centers," America's Voice, Dec. 19, 2017. Marie Solis, "New Border Patrol report shows 'no action' in more than 95% of misconduct cases," Mic, Aug. 5, 2017. Catherine E. Shoichet, "Lawsuit alleges 'forced labor' in immigrant detention," CNN, April 17, 2018. Laila Lalami, "How the Trump Administration Is Normalizing Immigrant Internment Camps," The Nation, July 20, 2018. Gabe Ortiz, "Democratic Lawmakers Want Moratorium on New Ice Facilities and Better Oversight of Existing Ones," Alternet, May 17, 2018.

Tell Congress: Protect Dreamers. Defund Hate.

The petition to Congress reads: “Protect Dreamers, cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and block funding for Donald Trump’s southern border wall in the next omnibus bill.” Add your name:

Donald Trump wants more than $20 billion to wall off our borders and lock up and deport more immigrants.1 We must speak out now to stop them. Congress needs to approve an omnibus spending bill to fund the government and keep it running by March 23. With Dreamers still in danger of deportation and Donald Trump’s lawless deportation forces tearing immigrant families apart daily, we must make sure that Congress permanently reinstates the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the bill and blocks any budget proposal that would ramp-up the criminalization and deportation of immigrants. Democrats and Republicans of good conscience must make a choice: Will they use their power to defund Trump’s hate in the omnibus bill or help him expand his racist agenda? Speak out now to make sure they do the right thing. Tell Congress: Protect Dreamers and cut funding for Trump’s deportation machine. Click here to sign the petition. We can no longer treat funding for immigration detention and enforcement as business as usual. Every dollar Congress appropriates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a dollar that will fuel Trump’s deportation machine and arm and mobilize his rogue enforcement army. ICE is hunting down immigrants at hospitals, schools and courthouses. Its agents are even arresting and detaining Dreamers and green card holders.2,3 Now, immigration enforcement agents are targeting immigrant activists who are speaking out against Trump’s authoritarian regime. ICE agents have deported Haitian activist Jean Montrevil and have detained and threatened to deport other prominent immigrant activists including Maru Mora Villalpando, Eliseo Jurado and Ravi Ragbir.4,5 By unleashing this dangerous deportation force to terrorize immigrants and undermine resistance movements, Trump’s xenophobic administration is threatening our nation’s values and our democracy.6 Congress must obstruct any budget proposal that would expand ICE and CBP and push for pro-immigrant policies in the omnibus bill. The March spending bill could be the last best chance for Congress to pass legislation that would permanently protect Dreamers from deportation. As in previous budget fights, Democrats in the Senate have the power to include the bipartisan DREAM Act in this must-pass bill. But to save Dreamers and cut funding for Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, we must speak out now to demand that Democrats fight back and Republicans of good conscience stand with the immigrants in their states, not the Trump regime. Tell Congress: Protect Dreamers and cut funding for Trump’s deportation machine. Click here to sign the petition. It’s important to remember that ICE and CBP have a long history of neglect, overreach and abuse. ICE’s mismanagement and neglect of the immigration detention system has resulted in a network of hundreds of jails riddled with reports of abuse and human rights violations. ICE agents have reportedly subjected immigrants in their custody to excessive solitary confinement and medical neglect that has led to immigrant deaths, physical abuse and sexual assault.7 Like ICE, CBP agents also have a troubling history of misconduct. More than 95 percent of all cases of alleged misconduct by CBP agents – including allegations of physical abuse and sexual assault – have resulted in “no action taken” by the agency.8 CBP is notorious for violating the rights of immigrants and people of color in the massive “100-mile border zone” over which it has jurisdiction.9 What Democrats and Republicans of good conscience do on March 23 will not only determine how much power Trump’s deportation machine will have over the next few years, it will also show the rest of the country whose side they are on. Whether they do their jobs and stand up for every person in their state – not just the ones who were born in this country – or side with a racist who is trying to uphold white supremacy on the backs of immigrants is up to us. Tell Congress: Protect Dreamers and cut funding for Trump’s deportation machine. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/immigration_omnibus?t=8&akid=27583%2E3130208%2E7xHrpX - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Dean DeChiaro, "More Funds Sought for Wall, Detention Beds," Roll Call, Feb. 12, 2018. Samantha Schmidt, "ICE detains a Polish doctor and green-card holder who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years," The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2018. Jamie Lynch, "DREAMer speaks out on immigration, gets arrested by ICE," CNN, March 2, 2017. Juliane Hing, "ICE Is Going After People Who Were Once Off-Limits," The Nation, Jan. 19 2018. Maria Sacchetti and David Weigel, "ICE has detained or deported prominent immigration activists," The Washington Post, Jan. 19, 2018. Cesar Vargas, "Trump’s Anti-Immigration Machine Is Chipping Away At The Fourth Amendment," HuffPost, Feb. 27, 2018. Anna Núñez, "Inhumane Human Rights Violations Found at U.S. Immigration Detention Centers," America's Voice, Dec. 19, 2017. Marie Solis, "New Border Patrol report shows “no action taken” in more than 95% of misconduct cases," Mic, Aug. 5, 2017. ACLU, "The Constitution in the 100-mile border zone," accessed March 2, 2018.

Tell the Department of Homeland Security: Investigate ICE for violating the human rights of immigrants.

The petition to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General reads: “Immediately investigate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for violating the human rights of immigrants.” Add your name: Border Patrol pouring out humanitarian aide water in desert  Donald Trump’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is out of control. As the rogue enforcement arm of Trump’s racist, xenophobic regime, ICE is invading communities across the country to terrorize and tear apart immigrant families. Its agents are detaining and deporting prominent immigrant activists and reportedly abusing people in their custody.1 To get ICE out of every community, we must use every tool at our disposal to discredit the agency and expose its human rights abuses. Demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately investigate ICE is a crucial first step. Tell the DHS Office of Inspector General: Investigate Trump’s deportation army. Click here to sign the petition. ICE is the deportation army that is helping Trump enforce his racist agenda and silence dissent. Trump picked anti-immigrant bigot Thomas Homan to be acting director of ICE and wants him to lead the agency permanently. Homan relishes in his ability to instill fear in immigrant communities and recently bragged about how many immigrants his agency has deported since Trump took office.2 He believes all undocumented immigrants are criminals and has unleashed his ICE agents to wage war on immigrant communities. ICE is hunting down immigrants at hospitals, schools and courthouses. Its agents are even arresting and detaining Dreamers and green card holders.3,4 Now, ICE is targeting immigrant activists who are speaking out against Trump’s authoritarian regime. Its agents have deported Haitian activist Jean Montrevil and detained and threatened to deport other prominent immigrant activists including Maru Mora Villalpando, Eliseo Jurado and Ravi Ragbir.5 Recently, more than 70 members of Congress signed a letter calling out DHS 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 and expired food, and denied pain medication to those with debilitating diseases.6 That is unacceptable. When security forces or intelligence services are terrorizing disenfranchised communities or resistance movements in other countries, Americans are quick to speak out. Now it's happening here at home and it’s up to us to stop it. We cannot allow ICE to operate in the shadows any longer. Add your name now. Tell the DHS Office of Inspector General: Investigate Trump’s deportation army. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/investigate_ice?t=7&akid=27433%2E3130208%2EgimbGT - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Juliane Hing, "ICE Is Going After People Who Were Once Off-Limits," The Nation, Jan. 19 2018. Jake Johnson, "ICE Director Brags About How Much He's 'Enjoying' Tearing Immigrant Families Apart," Common Dreams, Feb. 1, 2018. Samantha Schmidt, "ICE detains a Polish doctor and green-card holder who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 40 years," The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2018. Jamie Lynch, "DREAMer speaks out on immigration, gets arrested by ICE," CNN, March 2, 2017. Maria Sacchetti and David Weigel, "ICE has detained or deported prominent immigration activists," The Washington Post, Jan. 19, 2018. Anna Núñez, "Inhumane Human Rights Violations Found at U.S. Immigration Detention Centers," America's Voice, Dec. 19, 2017.