JUDICIARY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS CREATED BY FAILED IMMIGRATION POLICY

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JUDICIARY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS CREATED BY FAILED
IMMIGRATION POLICY

ADVOCATES URGE IMMEDIATE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN PHOENIX
ARIZONA AND SUSPENSION OF 287(G) PROGRAM

WHAT: National Leaders to testify on Capitol Hill
regarding ICE’s experimental 287(g) program and civil rights abuses.
Calling for federal immigration reform and an end to the outsourcing
of federal immigration responsibilities to local law enforcement.

WHEN: Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 10 a.m.
WHERE: US House of Representatives - Judiciary Committee

Rayburn House Building, Room 2141,

Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20024

WHO: U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-MI) - Chairman,
House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Lofgren (D-CA)- Immigration
Subcommittee, Phoenix, AZ Mayor Gordon, Chief Gascon, Supervisor Mary
Wilcox, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Puente Movement AZ,
ACORN, Maricopa Citizen for Safety and Accountability, CASA de
Maryland

Washington, DC-April 2, 2009 Racial profiling experts, victims, and
police officers will expose the ugly abuses of the 287(g) program that
grants local police the authority to enforce federal immigration
laws.
Advocates are urging the Obama Administration to vindicate the rights
of thousands of people who have suffered severe civil rights
violations under Bush’s failed immigration experiments. Religious
leaders, workers, community activists, academics, and politicians are
tearing the cloak off Bush’s “immigration enforcement” and exposing
it for what it is: a civil and human rights crisis. The people of
Maricopa Arizona have suffered some of the worst abuses under what
Congressman Conyers called Sheriff Arpaio’s “reign of terror.”
Under the experimental 287(g) program, Sheriff Arpaio and others like
him across the country are granted the authority to enforce federal
immigration law. The program has come under fire as several reports
including a recent GAO report reveal the mismanagement of the
program. Under 287(g) local officers divert valuable resources away
from fighting serious crime and instead target brown people for
“broken tail lights” and other misdemeanors. They undermine public
safety by creating an environment of distrust where people are afraid
to report crimes or serve as witnesses for fear of deportation. The
horror stories of detained citizens, abandoned children on side roads,
paraded immigrants in chains and shackles, and pregnant women forced
to give birth while chained to a bed illustrate the urgency for the
Obama administration to end the Bush-era policies and pass dignified
immigration reform.
“Local police departments cannot terrorize children and separate
families for traffic tickets and expect to preserve the trust of the
community they are charged to serve,” said Salvador Reza of Puente,
AZ. He added, “We call for the immediate suspension of Sheriff
Arpaio’s agreements with Homeland Security and the suspension of all
agreements with local law enforcement until dignified immigration
reform is passed.”
“We welcome the long overdue congressional investigation into this
failed program. Immigration reform is the responsibility of the
federal government not rogue sheriffs across the country. We need
meaningful federal immigration reform and not failed experiments like
287(g) program.. We don’t want to see more Arpaio-style abuses in
Arizona or in the rest of the nation” said Pablo Alvarado, Executive
Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), one
of the organizers of the actions against the 287(g) program in
Arizona..
“This program is part of our broken immigration system and it does
nothing to solve it. It only creates fear, confusion, and grants the
legal right to local law enforcement to abuse, and humiliate,” said
Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA de Maryland, the largest
state advocacy group for immigrant’s rights. “This is not the America
that we believe in, and we hope that the current administration stop
the ruthless practices from the Bush-era,” said Torres.