California TRUST Act, DC Bill Set New ‘Commonsense’ Trend
07.10.2012. Washington, DC.
Days after the California senate passed a “Post- Arizona SB1070” bill called the TRUST act, and on the day the Washington DC council is signed a similar bill (Bill 19-585) into law, more than twelve cities launched efforts to develop local policies that restore the trust in law enforcement damaged by the Department of Homeland Security’s coercive Secure Communities program. Groups are calling for an end to the program and urging local officials to join a trend of municipalities led by Cook County, IL, California, and Washington, DC to counter the criminalization of immigrants, to protect against racial profiling, and to prevent the wrongful extended incarceration of residents for the sole purpose of deportation by setting commonsense standards for how to respond to immigration authority’s voluntary hold requests.
Newly released FOIA documents illustrate that new policies in Cook County, IL, Santa Clara, California, and several municipalities are acting on solid legal grounds. While state laws seeking to regulate immigration in Arizona, Alabama, and elsewhere have been generally found to be unconstitutionally preempted and violative of civil rights, local legislation to limit the effect of failed Department of Homeland Security policies is clearly permissible.
The restoring trust effort seeks common-sense local solutions that ensure federal immigration enforcement will not undermine public safety. California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, sponsor of AB1081, the TRUST Act, explains, “California’s TRUST Act will make the state a model for transparency in the way local authorities cooperate with federal immigration authorities. It will remove the fear from interactions between local police and immigrant communities and by doing so will make our communities safer.”
Ron Hampton, Executive Director Blacks in Law Enforcement in America, added that from law enforcement’s perspective, “The bottom line is that ICE’s Secure Communities program is incompatible with community policing. Policing relies on partnerships with the communities served. It’s foolish to sever those relationships in order to enforce civil immigration laws. Police officers must create relationships to stop and prevent crime by gaining people’s trust. Secure Communities shatters their ability to do that. The federal government should not coerce local law enforcement to do the federal government’s job at a time of scarce resources, and certainly not at the cost of public safety. The federal government should follow common sense and heed the calls of law enforcement professionals and of local and congressional officials and finally terminate this failed deportation program.”
As seen in Arizona where immigration policies have created a humanitarian crisis, how localities respond to wrongful deportation is at its heart a moral question. Cardinal Mahoney, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, says, ”Our primary concern is the human dignity of immigrant brothers and sisters. What ICE has done is created an enormous feeling of fear and threat throughout the immigrant community. Because of Secure Communities immigrants are even terrified to call police when they’re a victim of a crime because they’re afraid they’ll be deported. Immigrants can be so valuable to keeping our communities safe but are afraid to do so. We must seek anything that can be done to diminish that fear and increase respect for the dignity of all people.”
Jesus Garcia, Cook County Commissioner and an early leader in restoring trust, explains, ”The Sheriff of Cook County was detaining people who were in custody for small infractions of the law, namely traffic related matters. [It] was resulting in placing them in deportation, causing pain and suffering to many families. The practice was resulting in an increase in racial profiling in the County. As we researched the issue, we found out that the belief that the ICE requests were mandatory was false. Local law enforcement was being bullied into responding to ICE detainer requests. ICE detainers are in fact voluntary not mandatory. We enacted an ordinance last September whereby the County of Cook ended all cooperation with ICE detainer requests unless they had a warrant as is the normal practice. Those in custody could, like anyone else arrested under the law, secure a bond and seek their release. There have been efforts to scare people and play on fears [but] as we have informed people, what is at stake here is ensuring the constitutional guarantees of all people in the County. We will not honor ICE detainers because they are not founded on constitutional practices and put our County at a liability if we were to hold people without being required to do so.”
On a tele-briefing announcing the week of action, Maria Poblano, mother of four in Florida, explained the impact Secure communities has had on her family. “On March 6, my husband and I took our son to the emergency room. On our return home, a police officer stopped the car and started our nightmare. My husband was arrested and was taken from me crying in front of our children. He was placed into deportation proceedings as a result of the Secure Communities program and now has a court date in October. How is it possible that we’re in this situation for taking our children to the hospital, for loving our children and taking care of our family? S-Comm has caused us to suffer both emotionally and economically. I hope they’ll stop this program because there are so many families like mine in Florida and other states. It only destroys families and leaves us more insecure.”
Leaders are calling upon local elected officials to take their own initiative to turn the tide against the broken immigration and detention system by enacting local policies that draw a bright line between local police and civil immigration enforcement.
As part of the initiative, groups launched a new website www.restoringtrusttogether.org as a resource for faith leaders, local elected leaders, law enforcement leaders, and other concerned stakeholders.
Restoring Trust National Week of Action: List of Local Events July 9th-13th
CALIFORNIA
CONTRA COSTA, CA
Date/Time of Event: Monday July 9th at 2:00pm pt
Location: 651 Pine Street – Martinez
Description: Vigil in front of Sheriff’s office to urge him to stop honor ICE holds and separating families and opposition to jail expansion in the county.
LOS ANGELES, CA
Date/Time of Event: Thursday July 12, 2012 at 9:30 am
Location: Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail 441 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Description: Press conference and rally outside detention center.
SANTA CLARA, CA
Date/Time of Event: Monday July 9th – Friday July 13th
Description: Community based surveys happening throughout the week as part of the Trust Index Survey designed to measure how the community’s trust in law enforcement changes when local law enforcement agencies cooperate with Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE)
SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA
Date/Time of Event: Wednesday July 11th at 5:30pm pt – 8:00pm pt
Location: St Francis of Assisi Church 1425 Bay Road East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Description: Community forum impact of ICE holds on Juveniles. East Palo Alto and Redwood City are the highest cities to refer youth to ICE. Youth standing up to the immigration and detention will share powerful testimonies. Also 10min consultations with immigration lawyers.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Date/Time of Event: July 14th at 11:00am
Location: Benito Juarez High School 1510 W Cermak, Chicago, IL
Description: Democracy day includes workshops and a rally to continue to protect the ground breaking Cook County Ordinances on ICE holds and advance administrative relief for DREAMers
FLORIDA
MIAMI, FL
Date/Time of Event: Monday July 9th – Friday July 13th
Location: Miami, FL
Description: Community based surveys happening throughout the week as part of the Trust Index Survey designed to measure how the community’s trust in law enforcement changes when local law enforcement agencies cooperate with Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE)
MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, MA
Date/ Time of Event: Thursday July 12th at 11 am est
Location: Massachusetts State House (inside staircase) Beacon Street Boston, MA 02133
Description: Press conference and announcement of commission to monitor S-Comm
NEW MEXICO
FARMINGTON, NM
Date/Time of Event: July 11, 2012 at 2:00pm
Location: San Juan County Jail, Farmington, New Mexico
Description: Press Conference
OREGON
PORTLAND, OR
Date/time: Wednesday July 11th at 11:00 am
Location: Voz Workers Rights Education Project 1131 SE Oak, Portland, Oregon 97214
Description: Visit offices of County Commissioners to provide information on voluntary ICE holds requests.
TEXAS
AUSTIN, TX
Date/Time of Event: Wednesday July 11 at 12noon pm
Location: Travis County Sheriff’s Office at 5555 Airport Boulevard Austin, TX 78751
Description: Restoring Trust in Travis County” and will be a press conference and media event
VERMONT
BURLINGTON, VT
Date/Time of Event: Wednesday July 11, 2012 at 6:00pm
Location: UU Church Burlington 152 Pearl Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Description: Migrant Justice, the UU Church, and NY Rural Migrant Ministry Will team up to share how the faith community can work in solidarity to stop anti-immigrant policies such as Secure Communities, and ‘ICE-Holds’ in defense of Human Rights.
WASHINGTON, DC
Date/Time of Event: Tuesday July 10th at 9:30am
Location: Steps of the Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington DC
Description: Press conference on the eve of passage of local bill to counteract impact of S-Comm and other harmful federal deportation programs