SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT: Don't let children grow up behind bars.

The Trump administration is now proposing indefinite detention of all children with parents seeking asylum. In a new proposed regulation, the White House is seeking to override the Flores settlement, a court ruling that forbids holding immigrant children in prison settings for longer than 20 days and provides basic minimal protections like a meal schedule, education, and access to legal support. If enacted, this means children could spend months and even years locked away while their cases are being processed—some learning to crawl, walk, and talk behind bars.

Public comment is being sought on this proposed regulation. Click here to voice your strong opposition to this new attempt to undermine human rights and traumatize children and families seeking safety.

Information on submitting a comment:

• Each public comment needs to be individualized to be counted. This is not a “click and send.” Please take a few moments to personalize your comment by speaking from your heart. Anyone can comment, you do not need to be an expert. You can find more background about the family separation policy here.
• If you are a professional in a field and can speak to this issue from your area of expertise, please do so. This applies to medical and public health fields, ministers and faith leaders, educators, social workers and therapists, and any other connection you may want to draw on.
• Public comments matter. They can influence policy. They also become public record and can be used to help upcoming legal challenges  to the proposed rule.

We have until November 6 to organize as many comments as possible. Please spread the word! President Trump must hear that we will not tolerate this violation of human rights, the basic dignities afforded to all, and our nation’s values. Submit your comment now.

Tell Fidelity and Vanguard: Stop funding Trump's immigrant prisons

Petition to Fidelity and Vanguard: "Stop funding and legitimizing Trump's heartless incarceration of migrants by immediately divesting from private-prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group." Add your name:

Are your hard-earned savings funding detention centers for immigrant families? Fidelity and Vanguard are two of the biggest funds managing retirement savings and pension holding. Huge numbers of Americans have savings with Vanguard and Fidelity – possibly including you, or someone you know. Fidelity and Vanguard are also majors holders of shares in CoreCivic which, along with GEO Group, is building private prisons for Trump's racist and cruel immigration policy.1 Tell Fidelity and Vanguard: Stop funding Trump's immigrant prisons. Click here to sign the petition. Funds like Vanguard and Fidelity manage so much money that they can have an outsized influence over corporate policies and practices. But because they rely on individual savings, they are also susceptible to mass public pressure. Vanguard and Fidelity together own 20 percent of shares in CoreCivic, and stakes in GEO Group as well. CoreCivic and GEO Group are private-prison companies that have built many of the detention centers that house families and parents whose children Trump's goons tore away from them. Sixty percent of Trump's incarcerated immigrants are held in private prisons built by companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group.2 Instead of decriminalizing and reuniting immigrant families, Trump's recent executive order replaced ripping families apart with indefinitely jailing them. Meanwhile incarcerated parents still search desperately for their children and countless kids are missing due to the Trump administration's heartless neglect.3 The ugly truth is there are many people getting rich off of Trump's crusade to terrorize immigrant families, and we need to make doing so absolutely toxic.4 That starts with calling out the mainstream funds – like Fidelity and Vanguard – that are providing funding and financial legitimacy to Trump's unconscionable policies. We need to raise the stakes and convince Fidelity and Vanguard to drop investments in private-prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Tell Fidelity and Vanguard: Stop funding Trump's immigrant prisons. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/fidelity_vanguard_immigration?t=7&akid=29131%2E3130208%2E6AV3rP - Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Gin Armstrong, Molly Gott and Derek Seidman, "Who is Profiting from Incarcerating Immigrant Families?" Eyes on the Ties, June 21, 2018. Ibid. Dara Lind and Dylan Scott, "Flores agreement: Trump’s executive order to end family separation might run afoul of a 1997 court ruling," Vox, June 20, 2018. Sarah Toy, "These companies are expected to profit from Trump’s continued ‘zero-tolerance’ policy at the border," MarketWatch, June 25, 2018.

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

---

 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

Children jailed with parents!

Yesterday, thanks to public pressure from hundreds of thousands across the country -- including thousands of Courage members like you -- the Trump administration has been forced to shift its inhumane child separation program. Trump's executive order doesn't mean the cruelty stops, it just means families will now be jailed together INDEFINITELY -- with no real solution or response to the thousands of children who have already been separated.

All the while, Congress still plans to use these families as bargaining chips to pass two anti-immigration proposals by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte TODAY! Both of these bills fail to bring separated families back together, and could actually lead to more children living in jails.(1)

• Speaker Ryan's bill doesn't ensure families stay together and allows children to be jailed indefinitely. After adults get out of jail, nothing in this bill actually says Trump can't still keep their kids separated. Parents could even get deported while their kids remain in the U.S., separating them by law permanently. This bill would also override current law to allow ICE to hold kids in immigration jail run by private prison companies indefinitely with their parents.⁴

• Rep. Goodlatte's bill targets black immigrants by eliminating the diversity visa program; drastically cuts family immigration; further militarizes the border; harms low-wage immigrant workers already vulnerable to abuse and exploitation; and wants automatic detention and deportation of anyone who comes in contact with authorities.⁵

Now it's time to turn up the pressure. 

We need to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear: Congress must take meaningful action to stop these awful anti-immigrant bills, and not blow up the immigration system, as the Ryan and Goodlatte proposals would. Can you call your representative, Martha McSally, and tell them to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills? 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills.

Tucson Office: (520) 881-3588

Here's a call script that you can use as guidance when you get on the phone with the representative:

"Hi, my name is __________ and I live in Tucson. I'm calling to ask you to vote NO on the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan, and to vote NO on the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte. These bills do nothing to address the crisis at the border, and they go against American values. Thank you." 

Up until today, immigration agents have snatched over 11,000 children from their parents this year -- even those asking for political asylum after escaping horrible human rights abuses.(2)

Trump and the Republican leadership are still using these children as leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to support two GOP immigration bills by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte up for a vote as early as TODAY. If they pass, it will basically end immigration as we know it -- and will do almost nothing to reunite the children that have been stripped from their parents' arms. 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills. 

- the Courage team

Footnotes:

1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17467624/immigration-bill-congress-2018 

2. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/shelters-undocumented-children-nearing-capacity-trump-immigration-policy/story?id=55882840

3.The House GOP says their new bill bans separating families at the border. That's a lie., Vox, June 15, 2018
4. Ibid
5.  The 4 Worst Parts of the Securing America's Future Act, Center for American Progress, June 7, 2018

More information:

Times article: Children 'Don’t Need Jail.' Immigration Advocates Say President Trump's Executive Order Creates Even More Problems

5 ways Ducey has helped Trump's cruel border policies

In recent weeks there has been a flurry of news coverage on the inhumane cruelty happening along our border. The Trump administration has made it a policy to separate children from parents who are fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking safety in the U.S. Rather than speak out against these atrocities, Governor Doug Ducey has doubled down on the “secure our borders” rhetoric. He’s done nothing to stop the separation of families, instead strongly supporting the administration’s cruel border policies. 

See the Ways Ducey Has Helped Trump

1. Other governors have spoken out against the Trump administration’s policy at the border. Colorado’s governor issued an executive order banning state resources from helping divide families at the border. Governor Ducey has taken the opposite direction and actually sent Arizona National Guard members to the border.
2. Ducey has aligned himself with Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who has defended separating families at the border. In April Ducey toured the border with Nielsen, who claimed there was a “crisis” happening. The governor commended Trump and Nielsen for addressing a surge in border activity. “Rather than letting this grow or build, this administration acted on it immediately,” Ducey said.
3. In May, Ducey had a nice dinner with Trump  to talk and collaborate with him on securing our border. Ducey told Trump that the Southern Arizona border was “wide open and unprotected.” In fact, the Southern Arizona border is heavily militarized.
4. In April, Ducey celebrated and endorsed Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to the border. He said troops were “needed” and “welcomed.” He even wrote an op-ed thanking Trump. 
5. Doug Ducey also showed no compassion to people seeking safety during the refugee crisis. He compared people seeking refuge to terrorists and defended the comparison with paranoid claims that refugees were ISIS operatives trying to establish terrorist networks in Arizona.

How You Can Speak Out

Come to this rally today at 2pm at the State Capitol. More details here.

Can't make the rally? You can also sign this petition!

-Progress Now Arizona

Tell Rep. McSally to help stop family separations

Tens of thousands of Courage Campaign members sent a powerful message to Congress yesterday calling for an end to Trump's viciously cruel family separation policy.

Now it's time to turn up the pressure. The Republican immigration proposals by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte -- which fail to end family separations and could actually lead to more children living in jails -- will be voted on in a matter of days.(1)

We need to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear: Congress must take meaningful action to humanely end family separations, not blow up the immigration system, as the Ryan and Goodlatte proposals would. Can you call your representative, Martha McSally, and tell her to vote no on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills? 

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to end family separations at the border.

Here's a call script that you can use as guidance when you get on the phone with the representative:

"Hi, my name is __________ and I live in Tucson. I'm calling to ask you to vote NO on the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan, and to vote NO on the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte. These bills do nothing to stop family separations at the border, and they go against America's welcoming values. Thank you." 

Immigration agents have snatched over 11,000 children from their parents this year -- even those asking for political asylum after escaping horrible human rights abuses.(2)

They even took a breastfeeding child away from her mother.(3) This is inhumane, and it has to stop. But Trump and the Republican leadership are using these children as leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to support two GOP immigration bills by Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Bob Goodlatte up for a vote THIS WEEK. If they pass, it will basically end immigration as we know it -- and will do almost nothing to stop children from being separated from their families.

These are children, not bargaining chips. Trump can end family separations with one phone call -- but instead he's holding thousands of kids hostage to his extremist immigration agenda. Will you call your representative immediately and ask them to defeat the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 by Speaker Paul Ryan and the Securing America’s Future Act by Rep. Bob Goodlatte?

Call 1-844-336-0046 and tell Rep. Martha McSally to vote NO on the Ryan and Goodlatte immigration bills. 

-the Courage team

Footnotes:

1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17467624/immigration-bill-congress-2018 

2. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/shelters-undocumented-children-nearing-capacity-trump-immigration-policy/story?id=55882840

3. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/14/undocumented-mother-baby-taken-while-breastfeeding-lavandera-newday.cnn 

More contact information:

Website: https://mcsally.house.gov/contact

Tucson Phone: (520) 881-3588

Tell Congress: Block any bill that would supercharge Trump's war on immigrants

The petition to Congress reads: "Block the Securing America's Future Act, Border Security and Immigration Reform Act and any bill that would supercharge the Trump administration's attacks on immigrant families and children." Add your name:

Republicans are doubling down on Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda. While immigration agents are tearing apart families and locking up children at the border, Paul Ryan and members of his party are pushing two xenophobic bills through the House that would supercharge Trump's war on immigrants.1,2 Both bills include provisions to protect Dreamers in exchange for measures that would destroy our countries immigration system and institutionalize Trump's hate. To protect our immigrant family members, friends and neighbors, we must make clear to every member of Congress that a vote for these bills is a vote to ramp up Trump's reign of terror. Add your name now. Tell Congress: Block any bill that would supercharge Trump's war on immigrants. Click here to sign the petition. Republicans' latest legislative push is another desperate attempt to appease the racist bigot who is leading their party and currently occupying the Oval Office. Rep. Bob Goodlatte's Securing America's Future Act and Paul Ryan's Border Security and Immigration Reform Act would give Trump the majority of his anti-immigrant wish list. They would:3,4 Prevent thousands of immigrants from reuniting with their families. Eliminate the diversity visa lottery. Expand Trump's deportation army. Militarize the border and fund Trump's southern border wall. Strip due process and protections from children and families seeking asylum. Paul Ryan released a draft of his bill last week and said it would end Trump's cruel family separation policy, but all it would do is allow some asylum seekers to be jailed with their children.5 Immigrant families are not enemies of the state. None of them belong behind bars. These anti-immigrant reforms could hurt tens of thousands of immigrant families, but the white supremacist in chief is still not satisfied. On Friday, Trump announced that he would not support Paul Ryan's bill because it was not extreme enough.6 Next week, negotiations will continue and Republicans could cave to Trump's demands and add more dangerous provisions to these bills before they vote. We must do everything we can to block them. With Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to revoke asylum protections for survivors of domestic violence and gang violence7 and his new directive to criminally charge8 all undocumented immigrants, any bill that expands Trump's deportation army and ends core immigration programs would put more immigrant families and children behind bars. It's up to us to make sure Congress fights back. Every member of Congress must make a choice: Will they help stop Trump's reign of terror on immigrant communities and block these bills or collaborate with his racist regime and help it terrorize families and children? Whether they choose to be on the right side of history is up to us. Speak out now. Tell Congress: Block any bill that would supercharge Trump's war on immigrants. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block_antiimmigrantbills?t=7&akid=28940%2E3130208%2EiR9PgJ - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Mike DeBonis, "House Republicans consider allowing immigrant children to be detained alongside their parents," The Washington Post, June 14, 2018. Kimberly Yam, "Activists, Lawmakers Of Color Denounce Hard-Line GOP Immigration Bill," HuffPost, June 14, 2018. Ibid. Ella Nilsen, "Read: House Republicans release their draft 'compromise' immigration bill," Vox, June 14, 2018. DeBonis, "House Republicans consider allowing immigrant children to be detained alongside their parents." Melanie Zanona, "Trump says he won't sign GOP's compromise immigration bill," The Hill, June 15, 2018. Katie Benner and Caitlin Dickerson, "Sessions Says Domestic and Gang Violence Are Not Grounds for Asylum," The New York Times, June 11, 2018. Sari Horwitz and Maria Sacchetti, "Sessions vows to prosecute all illegal border crossers and separate children from their parents," The Washington Post, May 7, 2018.

ICE arresting breadwinners and leaving families destitute

Less than two weeks before he was elected, President Donald Trump told the country, "We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out."

Jorge is not one of them. But just five days after the birth of his daughter, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to "get him out" anyway.

Without him, Jorge's wife, Rita, has no income – no way to pay rent, buy food, or provide for their three children. ICE agents left Jorge's family alone when they arrested him without so much as making a call to domestic support agencies, which is routine for local police.

In May, SPLC staff writer Will Tucker traveled to Greenwood, Mississippi, to talk to a priest who has been advocating for Jorge's family and others like them. Father Michael McAndrew knows that Spanish-speaking families in the area are "soft targets" for ICE.

"Throughout this case, I have been upset that ICE could pick up a person and not address the care of a five-day-old child," wrote McAndrew in a letter to U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. "I call what they did child endangerment."

In addition to Thompson, McAndrew has contacted lawyers and ICE agents about putting a hold on Jorge's deportation. But, as Tucker writes,

Arrayed against Jorge, Rita and their children is the force of the federal government, embodied by agents impervious to appeals for decency and seemingly determined to drive the family into poverty – or, at least, out of the country.

And as McAndrew notes, "What's happening to Jorge [and Rita] has happened to so many other people."

That's why we recently launched the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative. SIFI aims to ensure that skilled attorneys are available to represent detained immigrants pro bono, protecting their due process rights and — simply by giving them counsel — making their cases far more likely to succeed. We know families are depending on it.

- Southern Poverty Law Center 

House bill locks up immigrants in privatized prisons longer - at taxpayers' expense

There was the major attack on immigrants by the House of Representatives yesterday in the form of two bills that passed that are nothing more than 1) racist red meat for the nativist faction of the right-wing base and 2) corporate welfare for the private prison industry. Even the conservative CATO Institute points out the bills are a total sham and a massive waste of taxpayer money. CATO notes that one of the bills, which enacts tougher sentencing guidelines for undocumented immigrants -- referred to as “Kate’s Law” after someone murdered by an immigrant -- would balloon the federal prison population and, if in place at the time, would not have saved the life of the bill’s namesake. (Not to mention that despite all the fear-mongering, immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than the population at large.)

This legislation is political theater, but of the most dangerous variety, because it ignores facts to inflame bigotry and suspicion of immigrants.

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that the DOJ is also playing a supporting role in these attacks on immigrant communities. They’ve been working with the administration to hype up the stories of victims of crime by undocumented immigrants and Attorney General Sessions even gave a speech this week in which he used these cherry-picked stories to present a phony narrative about the outsized danger presented by immigrants.

- Ben Betz, People for the American Way