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SCSJ Immigration Client Released from ICE Facility

Written by Haroon Saqib

Despite promises to change its detention and deportation policies to focus on convicted dangerous felons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to waste to detain people who are merely accused of minor violations.

SCSJ staff attorney Marty Rosenbluth recently defended the case of S.O., an immigrant woman who was arrested by local police after a minor domestic quarrel that happened to be witnessed by a law enforcement official. S.O. had been living in the United States for over 10 years and was married to a U.S. citizen.

A local court judge agreed that she was not a threat and decided to release her with an oral promise to return to court for her pending trial. Despite this, ICE stepped in by taking custody of S.O. An immigration judge, contradicting the local court, set an extremely high bond and, when her husband could not pay it, she had to remain in detention awaiting deportation.

This case raises serious questions about whether ICE is meeting its promise to focus its detention and deportation efforts on dangerous criminals, and its assurance that it would pursue deportation only after a person is convicted of a crime in court. Rosenbluth raised this issue at a recent White House meeting on immigration reform and was able to use the case as a real example of how ICE was not keeping its promises.

Fortunately, Rosenbluth was recently able to win S.O.’s release from an Alabama detention facility. However, she was released late in the day without any money or transportation to return to her home in North Carolina. A friend of SCSJ was fortunately able to meet her and make sure he arrived home safely.

Still, her husband was ecstatic and left SCSJ a heartwarming message.

This recent success provides support that our efforts are changing the immigration rights landscape, even though ICE is dragging its feet on reform.

“This case is a powerful example of the strength behind SCSJ’s community lawyering model of combining advocacy with legal representation,” says Rosenbluth.

Law Designed to Reinstate the Right to Vote is Not Being Followed, Exacerbates Racial Disparity in Voting

Written by Grover Wehman, Organizing Intern

In North Carolina, a person convicted of a felony loses her right to vote until she completes all terms of her sentence, including probation or parole. The person regains the right to vote the day she completes her term. This reinstatement of voting rights, however, is not being executed in compliance with North Carolina state law.

A recent survey, conducted by Democracy North Carolina and tabulated by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, indicates that the majority of Parole Officers are not properly informed of, nor executing NC 163-82.20A: “Voter Registration Upon Restoration of Citizenship.”

This law charges the Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of the Courts, and the Board of Elections to inform persons completing sentences for felony convictions that her or his right to vote has been restored, and to provide the person with an opportunity to register to vote.

In January 2010 Democracy North Carolina conducted phone interviews with 84 probation and parole officers in North Carolina. The law states “(a)t a minimum, the program shall include a written notice to the person whose citizenship has been restored, informing that person that the person may now register to vote, with a voter registration form enclosed with the notice.”

However, when asked, only 6 out of 84 Parole Officers report that he or she provides persons leaving the system with a voter registration form.

Non-compliance with this law has racially disparate impacts on voting rights. Currently in North Carolina 73,113 people have been stripped of their right to vote. Despite comprising only 21% of North Carolina’s population, 57% of disenfranchised voters are African American.

If current practices continue, the number of legally or practically disenfranchised African American voters will expand exponentially. As each person completes their sentence, but is not adequately informed of the right to vote, disenfranchised voters remain disenfranchised even after their right to vote has legally been restored. As felony convictions continue, over time the current 42,000 disenfranchised African American North Carolinians could become 84,000 disenfranchised African American North Carolinians. In a state already struggling for racial equity in voting, the impact of noncompliance with the Voter Registration Upon Restoration of Citizenship law is great.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice along with Democracy North Carolina and other Coalition partners are pressuring state lawmakers to expand probation and parole officer compliance with this law and other practices within the criminal justice system that discourages voter participation.

Stay tuned for more information on racial justice and voting rights as we prepare for an upcoming Community Census and Redistricting Institute in late July.

Building Real "Secure Communities" in North Carolina

"Building Real 'Secure Communities': Addressing the Effects of Local/Federal Cooperation in Immigration Enforcement" is a training initiative designed to equip community-based organizations in the Triangle with the skills necessary to systematically collect data documenting abuses of human rights abuses occurring under ICE ACCESS programs. The Triangle CF helped the Southern Coalition for Social Justice train these groups so the data could be shared with policy and legal advocates in order to effectively engage in public policy debate about local enforcement of immigration law.

Immigrant Justice Organizers Get Involved

Recently, the Immigrant Justice organizing interns attended two events. On Friday, June 18th, we went to action with the NC DREAM Team at UNC-Chapel Hill where Senator Kay Hagan was the keynote speaker for a luncheon hosted by Action for Children, an organization that works to benefit the education of all children in North Carolina. We hoped to get Senator Hagan to support and co-sponsor the DREAM Act. While she did hold a brief meeting with the young women on a hunger strike, she still refused to support the bill. Later that day, we joined activists and allies at Senator Hagan’s office hours in speaking to her about the DREAM Act and immigration reform. These two meetings turned out to be the only opportunities that the activists had to meet with Sen. Hagan over the span of their two-week hunger strike. Although this day was seemingly frustrating, Hagan has since released a statement saying, "I believe the Dream Act should be considered in the context of comprehensive immigration reform.” On Saturday, we led a "Know Your Rights" training in Zebulon at a Latino church which has been targeted for police checkpoints scheduled during church services. We had adapted some aspects of the training based on the previous one held in Winston-Salem and found the changes to be more interactive. The congregation had plenty of questions for staff attorney Marty Rosenbluth about their rights and the state of immigration enforcement. Towards the end of the presentation, the focus shifted to organizing for immigrant justice and the level of energy reflected the need for reform.

SCSJ Attends the Social Forum #3

Written by Garrett Sumner, Organizing Intern On Thursday, the first workshop I attended was entitled “Globalization, Criminalization, and Managed Migration: Root Causes and Immigration Rights,” presented by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. We talked about the different forces which drive international migration and expanded the discussion beyond the typical US and Latin American model. For example, we talked about the trade agreement between Italy and Libya, which allows Italy access to Libya’s natural resources. In turn, Italy provides foreign aid to Libya. However, the agreement stipulates that Libya must use most of this aid to enforce immigration policies to limit migration to Italy. Thus, the aid directly benefits Italy itself while, suffering Libyans are unable to migrate to the country that benefits off of their natural resources.

The second workshop I attended was titled “Israeli Apartheid, International Solidarity and Water Justice.” We discussed the detrimental water use policies in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and how Israel diverts Palestinian water as a means of collective punishment. The workshop turned into a healthy dialogue about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and we deconstructed the “us vs. them” mentality often present in the discourse about the conflict.

Later, I walked through Detroit, witnessing at once its lost grandeur and its current deprivation. The plight of the city’s economy was apparent as businesses throughout the city were closed. While its architecture, constructed with past automobile money, seemingly displayed a titan of industry, there are now entire blocks of unoccupied or abandoned buildings. The US Social Forum is an appropriate first step for a city moving forward.

When the White House Calls

When the White House calls By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer When Marty Rosenbluth received a call summoning him to the White House, his first reaction was that it was a friend goofing around. “I thought it was a gag,” Rosenbluth said, though he really should have known better. As a staff attorney with the Durham-based nonprofit Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Rosenbluth witnesses firsthand, every day, the consequences of our nation’s immigration policy, specifically, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) and Secure Communities programs. Rosenbluth defends clients in deportation proceedings. The White House staff responsible for immigration policy wanted to pick his brain. It was a Thursday when the call came in. He was wanted in D.C. the following Monday for a meeting with White House staffers, representatives of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other offices within the Department of Homeland Security and staff from the Department of Justice. Rosenbluth had been invited along with members of other immigration advocacy groups to talk about a report released in March by the Government Accounting Office that indicates that ICE’s programs to identify and deport criminal aliens are failing – that, in fact, individuals picked up for minor offenses are overwhelmingly those who are being sent away. ICE officials argue that the report is inaccurate, that with the implementation of a new memorandum of understanding its programs are now operating much more effectively. Rosenbluth disagrees. “To put it in the most polite possible way,” he said, “we went up there to say that that ain’t so.” Word of mouth In just a matter of months, Rosenbluth’s work at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice has gone from being about 99 percent advocacy and 1 percent representation of clients in deportation proceedings to the inverse. Now 99 percent of his time is spent in such proceedings. “The reason for that is that once word got out that we were representing clients in deportation proceedings pro bono, people came,” Rosenbluth said. There are very few, if any, options in North Carolina for pro bono representation for those facing deportation under 287(g) or Secure Communities, he said. The 287(g) program – formally called the Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ICE ACCESS) – provides money to local law-enforcement agencies to help identify illegal immigrants and process them for deportation. The Secure Communities program involves fingerprinting individuals picked up for offenses and checking them against FBI criminal history records and immigration records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. According to a statement from ICE, if the fingerprints match those of someone in the DHS’s system, “the new automated process notifies ICE, enabling the agency to take appropriate action to ensure criminal aliens are not released back into communities. Top priority is given to individuals who pose a threat to public safety, such as those with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.” But the overwhelming majority of cases the coalition takes on, Rosenbluth said, are people who were placed into deportation proceedings after being arrested for minor violations. “Shoplifting is probably the most serious offense we see on a regular basis,” Rosenbluth said. No driver’s license, failure to yield, running a red light, expired tags or no registration are other typical offenses. “We get a lot of people who get picked up for failure-to-appear violations because they’re scared to go to court because they’re afraid of being picked up due to 287(g),” he said. “So it’s kind of like a cycle.” Lately, he said, they’ve seen a lot of people who were picked up at their probation appointments. “So they go to meet with their probation officer, they’re complying with the conditions of their parole, and ICE is waiting for them when they show up. “Why would you want to have an intentional policy of discouraging people from showing up for their probation appointments?” In addition to his work with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Rosenbluth is a member of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. Orange County does not participate in 287(g) but has been one of 21 North Carolina counties selected by the federal government for the Secure Communities program. A Secure Communities memorandum of understanding was signed at the state level and the counties were selected based on ICE’s capacity (manpower and beds available in jails) to act on the information in that county. Rosenbluth said that Sheriff Pendergrass isn’t doing anything any differently under Secure Communities than he was previously: “All he’s doing is fingerprinting detainees. That’s the only active thing the sheriff does.” Almost every jail in the state has an automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS). AFIS is connected to a central computer in Raleigh, which is in turn connected to ICE’s database. “Once ICE has the ability to act on the information,” Rosenbluth said, “the county is formally enrolled in the Secure Communities program. “The only way Orange County could opt out of Secure Communities – since it’s Orange County to AFIS to Washington, D.C. – is if they stopped fingerprinting.” “I don’t know what would have happened if [Pendergrass] had said no. I don’t think it would have had any effect, because the computers are still connected. “I guess Orange County could say, ‘We refuse to participate and you can’t come into our jails to pick these people up.’ But then you’re dealing with the right of the federal government to determine immigration policy.” Pendergrass was unavailable for comment. Commission seeks help The Orange County Board of Commissioners went to the Human Relations Commission to ask for help in dealing with the ramifications of Secure Communities. “We decided to try to put safeguards in place to prevent people from getting caught up in Secure Communities unless they were truly dangerous criminal aliens,” Rosenbluth said. The first of their recommendations was a demand for accountability. They wanted hard data from ICE regarding, for example, who was being put into deportation proceedings, where they were from and what they had been charged with. “We figured human rights violations occur best under the shadow of darkness,” Rosenbluth said, “so if we had accountability, it would be very embarrassing for ICE if [the data] shows that everyone who was picked up through ICE was picked up for jaywalking and none of them was a dangerous criminal.” The second recommendation was for a complaint procedure. The third was training for local law-enforcement officers to raise awareness about racial profiling. And the fourth was for a policy whereby the county commissioners would indicate to officers that they would prefer a consistent use of citations rather than arrests for minor offenses. The recommendations were presented to the commissioners in January; no response has yet been received. Commissioner Mike Nelson said the board asked the Human Relations Commission for input “because we wanted their unbiased opinion about whether or not these programs were being used to violate the civil rights of residents. “I don’t want to live in a community that engages in racial or ethnic profiling or one that harasses immigrants. I want our government, federal and local, to deal with immigration in a respectful and thoughtful manner.” Rosenbluth, Nelson said, has been “a valuable citizen resource for us.” A positive step A particular concern Rosenbluth has about the Secure Communities program is that it presents what he sees as an “accountability vacuum”: “Local law enforcement can say, ‘We’re not engaged in racial profiling; we’re just picking people up for driving without a license or littering. It’s ICE’s decision to put them into deportation proceedings.’ “And ICE can say, ‘We’re not engaging in racial profiling. We’re sitting in a computer command center in Chicago and this data is coming in. We’re just acting based on the information we receive.’” Rosenbluth said that unless there’s a clear policy directive from ICE not to put people who are picked up for minor offenses into deportation proceedings under 287(g) or Secure Communities, the overwhelming majority of people deported will be those with minor offenses. “I’ll say this on the record, even though a lot of immigration advocates would hate me for saying it,” Rosenbluth said, “but ICE officials in the field are doing their jobs in deporting people who are here illegally. They’re not looking at it from whether or not this is the intention of the 287(g) policy. They’re looking at it as, ‘Look; I’ve got this guy in my custody. He’s sitting here in my office; he’s basically admitted he’s here illegally. You want me to let him go?’ How is that possible? Rosenbluth doesn’t believe the ICE officials he met with in D.C. are being disingenuous about their perceptions of how things are playing out in the field: “I think they really don’t have a clue about how things actually work outside the Beltline.” ICE’s new memorandum of understanding for law-enforcement agencies reads: “The agency is expected to pursue to completion all criminal charges that caused the alien to be taken into custody and over which the agency has jurisdiction.” “They’re encouraging law enforcement to complete the state charges before someone passes into ICE custody, to make sure they are truly targeting criminal aliens,” Rosenbluth said. “Those are really pretty words if you’re sitting inside the Beltway. But in the field, they make no difference whatsoever, because that’s not the way things happen.” Rosenbluth believes that ICE’s own data shows that the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs are not working, that few criminal aliens are being deported. “It’s not a question of what the law is, it’s how it’s interpreted,” he said. President Obama or Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano could say, “‘We are not taking people into deportation proceedings anymore unless they’ve been convicted of a felony,’ and they could do that with the stroke of a pen. And that’s really what it’s going to take – a very clear policy directive.” Since his White House visit, Rosenbluth has returned to D.C. for a meeting with ICE and immigrant advocacy groups, keeping the dialogue alive. “I’m really glad they’re listening,” he said. “I’m really glad they’re hearing; I’m really glad that they’re trying to engage in the dialogue, and I think it’s a really positive step. “Is anything actually going to change? I guess that remains to be seen.”

HURRICANE – Participatory Human Rights Documentation and Story-Collecting

What do you get when you give immigrants the tools to document violations of their human rights? The Coalición de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas (COLA) has discovered that in telling their stories, immigrants find support, develop stronger shared analyses together, and become leaders in denouncing the abuses they experience. In addition, you will find truths that cannot be denied and the sickening details behind the abuses against immigrants normalized by mainstream society's stereotypes and criminalization of immigrants and people of color. Those details collected through documentation also become critical data that grassroots leaders can use to address anti immigrant policies such as 287(g) and Secure Communities programs, which COLA has done in Western NC. With the goal of empowering even more immigrant and refugee communities with the same tools, a coalition of organizations including COLA, SCSJ, American Friends Service Committee, North Carolina Justice Center, and the Latin American Coalition hosted the first statewide Human Rights Immigrant Community Action Network (HURRICANE) Training on May 8th in Greensboro. The groups represented a multiethnic immigrant community in North Carolina including representatives from the Muslim American Society, El Centro Hispano, Immigrant Solidarity Committee of Charlotte, Neighborhood Good Samaritan Center and United African Sisters, each with members who have directly experienced or witnessed human rights abuses as immigrants. The training started with discussions built on developing a stronger shared analysis about what community documentation means. As the day progressed, the participants learned more about each other’s stories, setting the precedent for future partnerships. Over the next few months, participants will begin gathering stories, organizing story telling nights, and hosting more trainings to further develop leadership. In the long term, the organizations hope to identify trends via the documentation and initiate organizing to combat them. SCSJ is committed to continuing this work and further expand participation in this project, which creates a platform for immigrants to tell their own stories and advocate on their own behalf.

Interview with Rebecca Fontaine, a Community Organizer in North Carolina

See link for audio interview. The Bond Fund interviews Rebecca Fontaine, who is the community organizer at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) in Durham, North Carolina. She discusses how she works with her colleagues and the Bond Fund on our joint project to oppose local police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rebecca dedicates her time to Immigrants’ Rights organizing and casework as a bilingual immigration paralegal. She brings a long history of participating in Latin America Solidarity work including trade justice campaigns, equitable development, demilitarization, and immigrants rights activism. Before coming to SCSJ she worked in Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast for over two years doing community-based development with rural families and coordinating experiential education for international delegations. Most recently she worked in a resource office at an immigrant-led community center in Durham. Rebecca graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 2005.

Point of view: Severing the bonds of trust

Point of view: Severing the bonds of trust BY CHRIS LIU-BEERS RALEIGH - As people of faith, we are greatly disturbed by reports of local law enforcement targeting Spanish-language church services in their misguided hunt for undocumented immigrants in Zebulon. All people - regardless of their immigration status - have the right to worship free from harassment and unconstitutional checkpoints. Just because someone doesn't have the right papers for the U.S. government does not make him or her any less a child of God. It's shameful that a country so proud of its religious freedom would unfairly target church-going members of the community. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Imagine the outrage and front-page headlines if police officers interrupted Sunday services at prominent white churches looking for people who cheated on their taxes or were late on their child support. Do we really want to be a society where you have to show proper documentation before being allowed to attend church? The N.C. Council of Churches has always affirmed that police and other institutions of justice have a vital role to play in our society, especially when they act in good faith to serve the common good and to protect the vulnerable against abuse. As North Carolinians, we are indeed deeply thankful for the policewomen and men who serve our communities, protecting individuals and society from criminal behavior. However, to the degree that particular law enforcement tactics tend to prey on those with less power in general and immigrant communities in particular, we are compelled to speak as people of conscience and faith. In fact, these kinds of rogue tactics are not only immoral, they also threaten public safety. When police target churches to enforce federal immigration law, it severs the bond of trust that is necessary for law enforcement to serve and protect immigrant communities. Across North Carolina, immigrants (both documented and undocumented) are becoming increasingly hesitant to report crimes to the police because they fear that they will be deported. This fear applies to both crime victims and witnesses. Again, we have to ask ourselves: do we really want to live in a society where our neighbors won't call the police when they see our houses being robbed? Rebecca Fontaine of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice reminds us that "Using local police officers for immigration enforcement erodes public trust in law enforcement, systematizes racial profiling, creates incentives for illegal arrests and prevents police from doing their job, failing to keep some of our most vulnerable communities safe." We believe that the rule of law is important. "Many people think we have good [immigration] laws and bad people who are breaking them," says Frank Sharry, head of America's Voice, a pro-immigration reform advocacy group. "But we have bad laws and mostly good people who have no line to get into legally." Until Washington has the courage to take action, we'll probably see more local dollars misallocated to round up church-goers. In the meantime, people of faith across North Carolina are joining together to demand that immigrants be treated with dignity and respect - as children of God. Chris Liu-Beers is a program associate with the N.C. Council of Churches

The Anti-Arizona

Two weeks ago, Arizona passed the nation's strictest immigration law, SB 1070, which requires local police to demand proof of citizenship if they suspect a person is undocumented. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton condemned the measure, saying it would get in the way of federal programs designed to target, "identify, and remove criminal aliens." One of these programs, Secure Communities, is already in place in seven Arizona counties and more than 150 other jurisdictions nationwide. It operates by enlisting states to run arrest data from local jails against a federal database of immigration records. ICE agents then use the system to deport people living in the country illegally and legal residents with criminal convictions. The program has been expanding -- in just the past year, 20 states have signed on -- but on Tuesday it hit a roadblock in the nation's capital. D.C. City Council members voted unanimously to introduce a bill that would make the District the first jurisdiction in the country to ban Secure Communities. "This is like something out of George Orwell. This is really 'insecure communities,'" argues District Council member Jim Graham, who represents an area that is home to many of the District's immigrants. Several Council members said the program could lead to more laws like the one passed in Arizona, which they described as "horrific." Washington, D.C., has a long history of resisting collaboration with federal immigration officials. A 1984 memorandum from Mayor Marion Barry Jr. forbids city agencies, officers, and employees from asking about citizenship or residency. So when the District's police chief quietly signed on to the program last November without consulting the City Council, Graham was outraged. "This is the type of thing that there are so many questions about, so many suspicions about, that it's best that we just not do it," he said during a committee meeting in March. One of the main objections to the program is that it targets undocumented immigrants charged with minor offenses -- such as disorderly conduct -- and longtime legal residents with criminal records who have become productive members of society. ICE claims the program focuses on dangerous felons, but its own data suggest otherwise. Fewer than 15 percent of the immigrants it identified last year were "level one" offenders. Most were arrested and deported for smaller crimes, like minor traffic violations. By opening the door to police-ICE collaboration, the program has also affected how local communities interact with local law enforcement. Critics point out that in cities that have adopted the program, fewer immigrants report crimes or are willing to help with other investigations. The prospect of similar problems in D.C. is especially galling for Ron Hampton, executive director of the National Black Police Association. He spent 25 years on the District's police force and helped develop its community-policing strategy as a way to prevent crime. "One of the top foundations of community policing is developing trust," he says. "Now this program stands to reverse all of that." Opponents of the program also point out that the program shares data of people charged with crimes even if they have not been convicted. In North Carolina, one of the first states to adopt the program, civil-liberties advocates say immigrants never get their day in court. "We have a drawer full of cases of people who were deported before their criminal case ever came up," says Marty Rosenbluth, a staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice based in Durham. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier insists she is listening to her critics and learning from problems that have surfaced in other states. She promised Council members she would not implement the program until she had a plan that addressed some of their concerns, such as the need to protect victims of domestic violence who fear arrest if they report abuse. Still, she stands by her push to eventually participate in the program. "If there's something I can do to reduce violent crime in the city, I certainly want to look into that," she told the Council. The Council wants no part of it. The bill to "prohibit the District of Columbia to transmit arrest data" to ICE still has to work its way through the committee process and then back to the Council. Ultimately, it will be reviewed by Congress, and ICE has said there is no way to opt out of the program except to stop fingerprinting people, so it is unclear how successful a ban on it will be. But it had unanimous backing from the Council, and a diverse cross section of the city's immigrant, faith, and civil-liberties groups have embraced the measure. Buoyed by backlash against the Arizona law, they say the bill signals the beginning of a national push against increased collaboration between police and immigration officials. "What we're doing in D.C. is setting a precedent," says Sarahi Uribe, a D.C.-based organizer with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and coordinator of UncoverTheTruth.org, a national campaign against Secure Communities. The campaign's motto is "No More Arizonas." Renee Feltz and Stokely Baksh are supported in part by a Soros Justice Media Fellowship. Their previous collaboration is online at BusinessofDetention.com.

Letter to Zebulon Police Chief and Wake County Sheriff Re: Illegal Checkpoints

This morning, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF), the North Carolina Justice Center, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice launched an investigation into the practice of targeting Latino churchgoers by the Zebulon Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office.