Southern Coalition for Social Justice
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 2, 2009
Contact:
Marty Rosenbluth, Immigration Attorney
(919) 323-3380×113, (919) 949-9050 cell; Marty@SCSJ.org
Elena Everett, Community Media Director
(919) 323-3380×112, (919) 413-1276 cell; Elena@scsj.org
Durham, NC – Yesterday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a letter to President Obama urging him to “immediately terminate all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) under the 287(g) program and cease to establish further such agreements.” The caucus calls for action due to a “serious concern” of local law enforcement agencies using these “new powers to target communities of color, including a disproportionate number of Latinos, for arrest.”
Additionally, two Massachusetts law enforcement agencies – the Framingham police and the Barnstable County sheriff’s department – have discontinued their participation in the 287(g) program, stating that they felt pressured by federal officials to broaden their enforcement in ways inconsistent with department policies.
The 287(g) program was initially established by I.C.E. with a stated goal to combat terrorism and criminal activity by partnering with local law enforcement agencies. Currently, Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg, Wake Counties and the city of Durham have 287(g) agreements.
In February 2009, the UNC School of Law Immigration Human Rights Clinic and ACLU of North Carolina released a 152-page report on the problematic outcomes of law enforcement agencies’ partnerships with the 287(g) program.
On August 27, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice was one of over 500 civil rights, community, and immigrant rights organizations to ask that the program be immediately terminated. In a letter to President Obama, these organizations, which included the NAACP, ACLU, MALDEF, and Anti-Defamation League, cited the civil rights abuses, specifically the racial profiling, endemic to the program.
“It is our hope that law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and around the country acknowledge the legitimate concerns of the Congressional Caucus and follow the lead of their Massachusetts counterparts by ending their involvement in this dangerously misguided program,” stated Marty Rosenbluth, immigration attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
