Sign the petition to demand ICE stop targeting immigration activists!

PUT ICE BACK ON ITS LEASH

We must protect both our immigrant communities and our right to dissent without retaliation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement - the agency known as ICE - is out of control. ICE has long been a cruel engine of this country's deportation machine. But now a growing number of immigrants' rights advocates and outspoken members of the immigrant community are facing detention, deportation, or criminal charges.

Coincidence? No chance. When immigration activists face harsher penalties in increasing numbers, it sends a clear signal to the rest of an already targeted immigrant community: keep quiet, or you'll be next.

The Trump administration is deliberately creating a climate of fear and uncertainty, fomenting panic among immigrant communities. Over the past year, many immigrants have decided to steer clear of courthouses, hospitals, and other public spaces, for fear of arrest and deportation. Imagine being too afraid to seek lifesaving medical treatment or to seek justice against an abusive partner because of the threat of ICE agents lurking around the corner.

Trump's racist targeting of immigrants isn't the only pattern at work here. From arresting and brutalizing Inauguration Day protestors, to labeling U.S. senators with racial epithets to screaming "fake news" at every New York Times story, the Trump administration attacks people who don't agree with its policies.

Enough is enough. We have the backs of immigration activists like Ravi Ragbir in New York, and we're not afraid of a fight. Stand with us and stand up to ICE's bullying, predatory hunt for activists.

Sign the petition to demand ICE stop targeting immigration activists!

https://action.aclu.org/petition/put-ice-back-leash

- Our Revolution 

Tell Greyhound to Stop Aiding Trump's Deportation Machine!

Greyhound is aiding in the criminalization of immigrants and the racial profiling of Black and Latinx people. In a move that evokes memories of Arizona’s “show-me-your-papers” law, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents are boarding buses and questioning passengers about their immigration and citizenship status. If a person is unable to provide documentation on the spot, they are removed from the bus and detained. By allowing CBP to conduct warrantless searches on their buses, Greyhound is aiding in Trump’s deportation machine that’s tearing apart families and wrecking communities.

Tell Greyhound: stop driving passengers into the prison-to-deportation pipeline!

Border Patrol agents have the legal authority to do immigration checks within 100 miles of a U.S. border as long as they have probable cause and/or a warrant.1 In the case of the Greyhound searches, CBP agents are boarding buses indiscriminately and racially profiling passengers to target them about their immigration status. American Civil Liberties Union chapters in 10 states have written a letter to Greyhound asking them to adopt policies banning these citizenship checks as they violate passengers constitutional rights against illegal search and violate Greyhounds own policies of not allowing non-ticket holding passengers to board buses.2 More than 3 million Americans don’t have a government-issued ID,3 leaving them at risk of possible arrest and detention when they ride a Greyhound bus. According to the ACLU, Greyhound is within their legal right to refuse warrantless searches by federal agents unless the bus is at a border crossing.

Greyhound needs to stop aiding Trump’s deportation machine

We know from videos and witness accounts that CBP agents are specifically targeting racial minorities for these searches, fitting in with Trump’s rhetoric that demonizes Black and Latinx people. From only checking IDs of “people who had accents or were not white”4, to stopping someone because their “shoes looked suspicious”5, to arresting a Jamaican woman who entered the country legally to visit her granddaughter,6 Greyhound is giving CBP free range to put people of color in the prison-to-deportation pipeline and separate children from their parents. 82% of the people stopped by CBP in Michigan at bus stops were Latinx7 and between 2006 to 2010, CBP erroneously arrested 300 legal immigrants in western New York state.8

This is 2018, not 1818. We don’t have to carry “passes” or “freedom papers”9 in order to travel from one location to the next. Over 50 years ago, Freedom Riders rode Greyhound buses into the Deep South to fight for Black civil rights, now Greyhound stands on the wrong side of history. Cities like Spokane, Washington are now accusing Greyhound of violating their anti-discrimination laws by allowing these illegal searches.10 With anti-immigration policies becoming more extreme each day, it’s only a matter of time before other municipalities start fighting back. Greyhound still has time to do what’s right. Join Color Of Change in telling Greyhound to ban Border Patrol agents from boarding their buses and performing illegal searches.

- Color Of Change team

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 References:

1. "The Constitution in the 100 Mile Border Zone", American Civil Liberties Union https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63541?t=9&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
2. ACLU Affiliate Letter to Greyhound, ACLU Maine, 21 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63542?t=11&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
3. "Why Millions of Americans Have No Government ID", NPR, 1 February 2012 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63543?t=13&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
4. "Primary Source: Border Patrol - and Scaramucci - Tied to the Valley", Valley New, 2 August 2017 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/63544?t=15&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
5. "Border Patrol stopped an undocumented man at the Indio Greyhound station because his 'shoes looked suspicious'", The Desert Sun, 21 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63545?t=17&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
6. "Trump said he'd round up 'bad hombres'. How did a Jamaican grandma get on that list?", Miami Herald, 23 January 2018 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/63546?t=19&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
7. "NYCLU, ACLU tell Greyhound to reject Border Patrol raids on buses", New York Civil Liberties Union, 20 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63547?t=21&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
8. "Report: Border Patrol wrongly arrested hundreds in N.Y." USA Today, 14 February 2013 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63548?t=23&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
9. "Slavery, Institutional Racism, and the Development of State Surveillance as Response to Resistance", Privacy SOS, 29 July 2014 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63549?t=25&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP
10. "Stuckart: Greyhound may be in violation of Spokane law by allowing Border Patrol searches", The Spokesman-Review, 20 June 2018 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/63550?t=27&akid=14705%2E3510445%2EjuomyP

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.

SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT: DO NOT ALLOW ICE TO DESTROY RECORDS OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND DEATH OF PEOPLE IN CUSTODY

Our government is claiming records of sexual assault and death in custody aren’t significant enough to preserve records. We have two more days to submit public comments to oppose destroying this critical paperwork and evidence.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has given preliminary permission for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin routinely destroying records, including those related to sexual assault by staff, substandard medical care, excessive solitary confinement, threats and physical assault by custody staff, and even deaths while in custody.

We can’t let ICE escape accountability for abuse and civil rights violations. Submit a public comment to tell NARA to stop the record destruction.

In cases of both sexual assault and death, NARA argued that these records “do not document significant actions of Federal officials.”

You can see this for what it really is: a blatant attempt by ICE to erase its abuses and gain impunity, making it harder for us to hold the agency accountable in the future.

We have until Friday, September 15 to urge the National Archives and Records Administration to do the right thing: stop ICE from destroying a paper trail of evidence for a system rife with abuse.

The Trump administration has pledged to expand immigration detention to record-breaking levels and lock up more people than ever before in its crackdown on immigrants. Our ability to hold ICE agents accountable for abuse matters more than ever. We must protect these records.

Here’s your job for the next 48 hours: send your public comment to NARA today and demand they deny ICE’s request to destroy these records.

ICE agents have largely escaped accountability for sexual abuse thus far. According to a Freedom of Information Act Request, the Office of the Inspector General investigated only 2.4% of sexual assault complaints related to ICE agents from May 2014 through July 2016. Destroying these records would be a slap in the face to the survivors and their loved ones – a shameful lack of accountability for the violations committed.

Additionally, 170 people have died in immigration detention since 2003, including 10 deaths since October 2016 alone. If we allow ICE to destroy these records, they will be able to whitewash history and escape accountability.

We can’t allow this to happen. We must hold our agencies and officials accountable when they violate the rights of people in custody.

Submit your public comment to NARA today. We only have until September 15 to have our public comments considered, so it’s crucial for you to take action immediately.

- ACLU