05/19/10 A second-grader stole the show today, even as U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon held a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. They spoke about the need for immigration reform and about concerns over Arizona's harsh new law. Nothing particularly surprising.
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04/26/10 Phoenix Mayor, Phil Gordon, and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, are condemning Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's move on Friday to sign the controversial SB 1070 into law. Gordon's primary focus is on the adverse implications this bill will have on community safety. By diverting police attention from capturing dangerous criminals to rounding up immigrants (and Latinos who leave their wallets at home), this bill has the alarming ability to alienate a population that would otherwise be helpful in reporting and reducing real crime.
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04/23/10 But she did sign Arizon'a harshest profiling bill yet, S.B. 1070, into law today. So, why is she telling cops to profile people based on "reasonable suspicion" they could be undocumented, if she doesn't know what that looks like? Watch it.
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04/14/10 Imagine every cop in your state was forced to do their job like that controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio or risk getting sued? That's what a new bill in Arizona, which could be signed into law by the Governor in a matter of days, would do! It would force cops to interrogate — even jail — people, based on whether or not people "look" like they have their papers in order.
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04/09/10 An editorial in today's New York Times adds to a week of attacks on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), since last Friday's release of a new report by the agency's Inspector General that slams the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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04/02/10 On Tuesday, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) convened about 40 state and local police officers from across Colorado to discuss immigration enforcement. The attendees reached the same conclusion as law enforcement professionals at previous PERF events in Phoenix, AZ and Raleigh, NC: the incoherence of federal immigration policy causes unnecessary difficulties for local police.
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02/26/10 Chief Lisa Womack of Elgin, IL; Sheriff Richard Wiles of El Paso, TX; and Chief Sam Granato of Yakima, WA, participated in a telephonic press conference yesterday sponsored by the Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative (LEEI). They called on President Obama and Congress to (in Chief Granato's words) "step up to the plate" on reform. Meanwhile, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran told the Chicago Tribune that he supports comprehensive immigration reform, calling it "morally the right thing to do."
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12/22/09 A pair of disturbing stories published last week uncover disturbing new frontiers in immigration enforcement, and prove that while the Obama administration may have abandoned workplace raids, it isn't above using cheap tricks and racial profiling to catch undocumented immigrants.
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11/10/09 This morning, the Associated Press and Minnesota Public Radio reported that 1,200 undocumented janitors had been fired from Twin Cities company ABM under pressure from the Department of Homeland Security. ICE worked with ABM, giving employees a few months to produce documentation and then firing those who couldn't in four waves throughout October in what might be called a "silent raid." None of the janitors were arrested, and ICE hasn't yet fined ABM.
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10/27/09 Yesterday, in "Warning: Talking Sanely about Immigration May Be Hazardous," we reported on Sacramento's Police Chief Rick Braziel, and his measured, rational approach to immigration and community policing. Today, we are happy to highlight another key voice on this issue. Outgoing LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton is a member of the rapidly-growing network of police chiefs across the nation calling for a serious immigration overhaul.
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10/27/09 Today, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Rights at Work (ARAW), and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) are releasing a report, "ICED Out: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers' Rights," which documents, according to the press advisory, "how the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement in the recent past has severely undermined efforts to protect workers' rights, to the detriment of immigrant and native-born workers alike." The reports examines the Bush Administration's workplace immigration enforcement actions between 2006 and 2008 and it describes, in devastating detail, the problems associated with prioritizing immigration enforcement over labor law enforcement.
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10/27/09 So, now we're ticketing people for not speaking English? No, really. Daphne Eviatar of the Washington Independent reports:"Dallas police wrongly ticketed at least 39 drivers for not speaking English over the last three years, reports the Dallas Morning News." It seems Dallas police were confused when, after pulling drivers over for other suspected violations, the police checked their in-car computers and a pull-down menu listed the "non-English speaking driver" charge as an option...
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10/26/09 Last week Stephen Magagnini and Susan Ferriss of the Sacramento Bee first reported that Police Chief Rick Braziel had become the latest voice of a growing number of police chiefs across the nation calling for a serious immigration overhaul. These police chiefs are sick and tired of what they're seeing on the ground, a festering situation rife with abuse made worse by politicians' lack of courage to tackle real immigration reform.
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10/19/09 The Arizona Republic , in an editorial today, had some harsh words for "America's Toughest Sheriff", categorically denying that the Sheriff has any federal or state authority to continue conducting these sweeps: "Joe Arpaio's self-promoting "sweeps" may be a lot of things. But "legal" isn't one of them. Clearly, there is some part of that word the Maricopa County sheriff does not comprehend. Arpaio claims he has the authority to continue wasting his scarce resources chasing down broken tail lights on cars and terrorizing Hispanic neighborhoods. Others beg to differ, including the federal Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency."
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09/10/09 We're coming to the close of the year in which President Obama said that immigration reform would be a priority. But to date, the Obama administration has only extended harsh immigration enforcement provisions put in place by the Clinton or second Bush administrations. These punitive pieces of legislation include E-Verify, a 100% detainment policy, the Secure Communities initiative, and the infamous 287(g) agreement. Cumulatively, they do not reflect a workable philosophy on immigrants, society, or the U.S. economy. Instead, this enforcement agenda destabilizes communities with police persecution and terror.
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08/21/09 For the 130 immigrant advocates, business and labor leaders, and law enforcement representatives, who met with Janet Napoitano yesterday, the urgency for real reform is clear.Here are four video responses from attendees at yesterday's White House meeting on immigration reform. I took these videos directly after the meeting, as attendees were leaving the White House.
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07/30/09 Today, we released a new video calling on DHS secretary Napolitano to investigate Bush-era home raids and focus on real, comprehensive immigration reform instead of half-baked enforcement measures that are only making communities less secure.
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07/28/09 It wasn't at first obvious to an outsider what these police chiefs had in common, but after an hour's worth of discussion it became clear: they've all been caught at the center of an immigration fire storm, without ever choosing to be there. What do these chiefs want instead? Consensus on this one -- they just want to do their jobs: ensuring the safety of the communities they serve. Police chiefs and many of the associations that represent them, the Major Cities Chiefs, the Police Foundation, and now the Police Executive Research Forum, have increasingly been standing up to say just that.
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07/22/09 The report makes several recommendations, including limiting the use of home raids to a last resort for targets who pose a serious risk to national security or have violent criminal records; the use of judicial rather than administrative warrants, and the videotaping of all home raids. It also calls for the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to conduct an investigation.
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07/20/09 In July of 2007, Prince William County, Virginia became "ground zero" in America's explosive battle over immigration policy when elected officials adopted a law requiring police officers to question anyone they thought was "probably" undocumented. 9500 Liberty reveals the startling vulnerability of a local government targeted by national anti-immigration networks using the Internet to frighten and intimidate lawmakers and citizens. Watch it.
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07/16/09 Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced big changes to the government program that turns local cops into immigration agents (the "287g" program). The changes are a start, but they haven't stopped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's dangerous and racist antics in Maricopa County, Arizona. Last Spring 40,000 Americans like you spoke out against the Sheriff's tactics. The House Judiciary Committee called for strict review, and the Department of Justice announced it would carry out a federal investigation!
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03/10/09 In an interview with NPR yesterday, I lay out some of the pitfalls of local immigration enforcement in the absence of federal solutions. The 287-g program, taken at its worst, breeds the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The issue for many local sheriff offices is, at its core, community safety. Will immigrant communities partner with law enforcement in reporting crimes if they fear that encounters with police will invariably lead to checking people’s immigration status? Unlikely.
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08/17/08 Although polar bears are in danger, the ICE we are referring to here is the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In early August, Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary of ICE let slip during an Univision interview that her agency was going to unveil a new program that would allow undocumented immigrants to "self-deport". As one of the most ridiculous proposals to "fix" our broken immigration system (even worse than "the wall") nears its final week, we decided to take serious look at the ICE's pilot program, unfortunately named "Scheduled Departure."
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