Tag: Dignity Not Detention

JHISN Newsletter 04/05/2025

Posted on April 5, 2025 by - News, Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Greetings in a time of emergency and resistance. Across the nation today and in all 50 states (including Bryant Park, Weehawken, and Staten Island) at 1:00 PM the people are demonstrating to demand: an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, women, workers, trans people, and other communities.

The breadth and speed of the Trump regime’s assault on immigrants has been stunning, but not unexpected. Starting immediately after the election, immigrant justice advocates began to regroup. They are looking for ways to draw community allies closer, filing defensive lawsuits, pushing for protective legislation, and conducting intensive “know your rights” campaigns. In our first article, we review the anti-immigrant steamroller of federal actions. In our second article, we look at state and local legislation proposed by local progressive politicians and prioritized by grassroots immigration activists. We conclude with a partial timeline of the deportation machine that is growing ever bolder.

Newsletter highlights
  1. The stunning number of attacks and deportations
  2. Pro-immigrant legislation working its way through our state legislature
  3. A timeline of disturbing deportation actions

1. 76 Days Later: The Cruelty and The Deprivation

“The second Trump administration began with a slew of executive orders designed to terrify and devastate immigrants, their families, and communities across the United States.”—National Immigration Law Center

After trying to make Americans fear immigrants as invaders, the Trump administration is now leveraging the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in the same way it was leveraged during World War II to round up US Citizens of Japanese descent, steal their homes and property, and imprison them in concentration camps. AI has been used to identify and revoke the visas of academics for their campus protests over Gaza. Long-time green card holders are suddenly losing legal status and facing deportation. The citizenship of people born in the US is being challenged, as is that of naturalized citizens.

The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) states that “ALL people in the United States have rights, regardless of their immigration status.” The NIJC advises people to seek legal counsel. But law firms have capitulated to Trump’s unconstitutional lawfare threats to ban legal firms from access to government buildings, meetings or jobs. It is therefore no surprise that individuals and non-governmental organizations may also capitulate. Thus, the Quaker organization, American Friends Service Committee currently guides Venezuelans less about their rights to stay, and more on how people can mitigate the damage by securing a family’s legal power of attorney, managing financial protections, gathering official documents, and avoiding scams related to legal representation for when people are deported.

The White House press secretary makes the absurd argument that opposition to Homeland Security sending people with tattoos to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center equates to support for vicious gangs. But when the federal government’s deportation machine vanishes people, without orders of deportation, from the US to El Salvador, or Guantanamo, or from any US state to Louisiana’s remote and abusive ICE facilities, then the expectation of constitutional rights for anyone vanishes.

Recently Victoria Spartz, an immigrant Republican member of Congress from Indiana, actually stated in a public town hall: “You violated the law, you are not entitled to due process.” Yet the very purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to place “restraints on the government any time it detains (seizes) or searches a person” and the Fifth Amendment establishes no one shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Due process is reiterated in the 14th Amendment and all of these apply against the US government rather than being granted to individuals. 

Homeland Security admits that only 137 of the 238 people were deported to El Salvador as “enemy aliens”; so it deported 101 people to a brutal high-security prison in another country under “regular immigration procedures.” The Trump administration even paid El Salvador over $25,000 per person, for the year, to make them disappear. Their rationale is that it is cheaper than housing them in private prisons. Homeland Security will also not facilitate communications with any lawyers because these people have already been removed. 

There have been so many anti-immigration actions recently taken it is challenging to summarize them. The arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the first of many students arrested for their protest actions, suggests that the government is punishing and silencing free speech, or removing the privilege of one’s visa status based on ever-changing political opinions on foreign policy. It is vital to see these actions together, rather than as disjointed news articles. At the end of today’s newsletter we have compiled a partial timeline for you to read, in one place, the key actions reported on by various news sources…many of these sources Trump and his administration are seeking to delegitimize, defund or punish because they report facts instead of amplifying his talking points.   

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Join Amnesty International’s campaigns to release Mahmoud Khalil and tell Congress to stop the funding of mass deportations and inhumane border policies
  • Act along with the ACLU and demand elected leaders be vigilant and speak out against mass deportations and the president’s unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
  • Subscribe to a new immigration podcast Unsettled, and listen to the National Constitution Center discussion explaining how the recent use of The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 does not meet the requirements of wartime action it requires. 

2. Pro-Immigrant Reps Sponsor Protective Legislation

Fighting to stop the Trump regime’s anti-immigrant juggernaut requires resistance on many fronts. One of those is passing state and local legislation to protect immigrants from ICE abuses. New York voters have sent many progressives to the City Council and Albany. Now some of these politicians, including representatives from our neighborhood, are working with grassroots organizations on measures to prevent mass deportation and ensure due process.

One key piece of proposed legislation is the New York For All Act. This law would formalize a number of sanctuary provisions at the state level. It is strongly supported by Make the Road New York, which is using statehouse rallies and a phone call campaign to push it forward. As MTRNY describes it, the Act:

  • Would prohibit state and local officials from enforcing federal immigration laws or transferring people to ICE custody.
  • Block ICE and CBP from entering non-public areas of state and local property without a warrant.
  • Ensure that people in custody receive notice of their rights before being questioned by ICE.
  • Begin the process of restricting ICE and CBP access to state databases.

MTRNY specifically highlights the need to keep New York’s DMV database—which includes information on undocumented drivers—out of the hands of ICE.

On March 12, the New York City Council sent a message to the state legislature supporting the New York For All Act. During the same session, they also endorsed the Access to Representation Act, cosponsored by local Assemblyperson Catalina Cruz. This bill would “establish the right to legal counsel in immigration court proceedings.”

Cruz has been particularly active in generating pro-immigrant legislation. Her Protect Our Schools Act, co-sponsored by several other local lawmakers, is designed to prevent ICE from entering or making arrests in any state schools without a judicial warrant. Cruz presented this legislation as part of a trio of bills. The other two parts of her package include a law that targets rampant fraud by immigration “advisors,” and another guaranteeing proper translation of all immigration proceedings. The need for translation services and “language justice” is also reflected in a recent NY City Council decision to create a Language Access Bank, and to fund the translation work of local immigrant organizations.

Cruz and other Queens-based legislators are also among the 54 sponsors of the Dignity Not Detention Act. As we reported previously, this proposed law “prohibits governmental entities from entering into agreements to house individuals in immigration detention facilities; requires governmental entities to terminate existing contracts for the detention of individuals in immigration detention facilities.” It is supported by a wide range of immigrant justice and civil rights groups.

Legislation can be an important weapon to defend immigrants. But its success depends on the strength of progressive sentiment: first of all in electing pro-immigrant representatives, and then in backing them up to get just laws passed. It remains to be seen how New Yorkers, including Governor Hochul, respond to recently proposed progressive legislation in the face of the current wave of xenophobia.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Participate in Make the Road’s phone-in for the New York for All Act.
  • Learn about the Language Justice Collaborative, which trains and provides interpreters for African, Asian and Latin American immigrants.

3. A Partial Timeline Of Deportations And Actions

Jan 20 – As promised on day one of being a dictator, Trump signed blatantly unconstitutional paperwork to eliminate the 14th Amendment right to birthright citizenship by executive order and began to eviscerate due process in the immigration system. He also began the process of weaponizing the military against immigrants.

Jan 21 – Alfredo Orellana, a green card holder married to a 6 months pregnant US citizen, was detained after returning from a trip to El Salvador. Originally born in Argentina 31 years ago, Orellana has lived in the US since he was 4 years old.

Jan 25 – German tourists entering the US on valid travel documents were held in ICE detention for 46 days and then deported.

Jan 31 – US Citizen Julio Noriega was swept up in warrantless arrests by ICE in Chicago and given no opportunity to discuss his citizenship. He was released, after being held by Homeland Security for 10 hours, with no money and no paperwork to explain the reason for being held or released.

Feb 1 – TPS was suddenly suspended for 472,000 Venezuelans. Under Biden, the end date had been extended to October 2026. It was shortened to April 7, 2025 which Homeland Security would use to justify their deportation in weeks. A federal judge later halted the suspension pending court hearings.

Feb 4 – A 10-year-old US Citizen with brain cancer was deported from Texas to Mexico with her entire family while they were driving to a medical checkup in Houston from border town Rio Grande City. Other than lacking “valid immigration status in the U.S.,” the parents have “no criminal history,” and they have been deported to a region known for kidnapping US citizens. Heritage Foundation fellow and Project 2025 contributor, Tom Homan, who is not a Cabinet member but wields control over immigration policy with the official title of Border Czar, is known to have cold disregard for the US citizenship of 4 million children who have an undocumented parent. He stated that the parents will decide when to break up a family, not the government.

Feb 7 – Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to deputize IRS criminal investigators, to “assist in immigration enforcement”. Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell rejected the plan for the IRS to share the addresses of the people in their databases. Three weeks later the 40-year veteran of the IRS, O’Donnell, retired. His replacement, Melanie Krause, is willing to accept the plan to allow the Department of Government Efficiency known as DOGE (most accurately pronounced “dodgy”) access to the address data. Many point out this situation contradicts Trump’s typical narrative that the immigrants he attacks as illegal are a social burden and don’t pay taxes.

Feb 14 – Using a law from WWII, Kristi Noem announced the plan to create a Migrant Registry and require those who are undocumented to come forward or face criminal penalties.

Feb 15 – Camila Muñoz was detained by an immigration agent when she and her Trump-voting husband returned from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Her unlawful action was letting her immigration paperwork expire during COVID when she was not allowed to travel. The husband blames the system, not Trump. But within a month he was considering moving back with her to Peru.

Feb 19 – German tourist Lucas Sielaf, and his US Citizen fiancée were held by ICE for two weeks after going to a vet in Mexico.

Feb 20 – Secretary Noem suddenly amended the period of extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS from 18 months to 12 months. The new end date is August 3, 2025 which Homeland Security would use to justify their deportation.

Feb 25 – While tearing down all rights related to immigration, Trump announces that wealthy immigrants will soon be eligible to purchase a gold card path to citizenship for $5 million. Unlike the EB-5 entrepreneurship visa that requires people to invest in a business over time in the United States, this gold card requires only one payment and will be open to Russian oligarchs who Trump said “are very nice people”.

Feb 26 – Becky Burke, a 28-year-old backpacker from Wales, UK, was held in chains after crossing into the US from Canada; possibly due to the agent’s opinion that the free housing she received was considered payment in return for her helping them with housework. 

Feb 28 – Lewelyn Dixon, a 50-year resident and green card holder, was held in ICE detention in Tacoma when returning from a trip to the Philippines. Her family did not know until March 2 and were not informed why she was being held. She is currently scheduled for a hearing in July.

Mar 6 – Ma Yang, from Milwaukee, is 37 and has lived in the US since she was 8 months old: in mid-February she was detained during a regular US Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in meeting, separated from her US citizen partner and children, then deported to Laos. Born in Thailand, Laos is a country she has never even visited. 

Mar 7 – A German mother and son, both with permanent residence status, were held at Logan airport with no explanation as to what had flagged the son’s green card. The son had to be hospitalized after release because he had been “deprived of sleep, food and water, and had his anxiety medication withheld.” while he was held.

Mar 8 – Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident and recent graduate of Columbia University, was the first of known student protesters of the Gaza conflict to be taken by Homeland Security agents. His 8-month pregnant US citizen wife was also threatened with arrest. After being transferred to ICE custody in Louisiana, he was flown closer to home to a New Jersey detention center at the demand of a federal judge.  [Correction: Khalil was not flown to NJ; a judge transferred his case to NJ at the request of his lawyers, and some of his hearings are being held in NJ as he remains caged in Louisiana and appears remotely]. Trump demanded the compliance of all universities and said “This is the first arrest of many to come.” [Update: On April 11 a judge ruled that Khalil can be deported, but due process is required as the United States government must successfully argue their preposterous case that his presence posed potentially serious foreign policy consequences.”]

Mar 10 – A Venezuelan couple, with Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and valid work authorization, were grabbed by Border Patrol in Washington, DC and separated from their three children. A judge said their arrest was “baseless and unlawful” and the Border Patrol’s assistant commissioner of public affairs, Hilton Beckham, alleged, “without evidence, that the couple had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang”. Megan McFadden, an attorney for the federal government, admitted she had not heard the couple had valid TPS paperwork.

Mar 11 – Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, was concerned about being detained illegally, with no criminal charges after her visa was revoked. Srinivasan is another student who has shown support for Palestine throughout Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. The university did not prevent ICE agents from accessing university housing without a judicial warrant and she chose to fly to Canada.

Mar 14 – Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was denied entry at Boston Logan International Airport on a Thursday. The day after her airport detention, US District Judge Leo Sorokin (who was the fourth federal judge to block the attack on birthright citizenship) set a hearing for the following Monday. The hearing was canceled after she was deported to Paris under suspicion of support for Hezbollah.

Mar 14 – The visa of Momodou Taal, a graduate student at Cornell University, was revoked. The United Electrical union supports him because, if the federal government is allowed to come for Taal, they will be emboldened to come for anyone who challenges climate policies, stands for the rights of women and LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and workers’ rights.

Mar 14 – Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, chose to self-deport using the redesigned CBP Home App after Homeland Security revoked her visa on Mar 5. [Correction: Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student from India, did not self-deport using the CBP app: that claim was official propaganda disinformation on ex-twitter from Kristi Noem. On March 14, Srinivasan’s lawyer’s informed ICE she had left the country three days earlier.]

Mar 15 – Homeland Security ignored a judicial ruling requiring planes, headed to El Salvador with over 200 deportees, to return to the US. A video was released showing their delivery to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, whose president mocked the order by posting on social media, “Oopsie…Too Late,” The US paid El Salvador $6 million to take them for a year and provided no proof these people were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Trump then floated the idea of sending US Citizens to prisons outside the country.

Mar 17 – Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrant rights advocate with the American Friends Service Committee in California, evaded deportation in 2017 by seeking sanctuary by living in the basement of a church with her children. She was taken into custody near the Target store where she worked.

Mar 17 – Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University was detained by masked federal agents outside his home. Suri’s lawyer stated Suri is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his US citizen wife because the government suspects they both oppose US foreign policy toward Israel.

Mar 18 – Using false narratives about immigrants increasing crime resulted in an ICE raid in Boston that rounded up 370 people, many of whom were legally in the US and going through the asylum process.

Mar 24 – Yunseo Chung, another permanent resident student at Columbia University, files a lawsuit against members of the federal government for their action against her, claiming “She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws” for engaging in what they claimed as concerning conduct in a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. Chung’s suit states this is a “larger pattern of attempted US government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech”.

Mar 25 – Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian Graduate student at the University of Alabama, had his visa suddenly revoked and at 3 a.m. agents took him into custody and removed him to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana which is holding several international students targeted by Homeland Security. Fortunately, his finacée was able to share his story and people mobilized to help support his legal defense.

Mar 25. – Rumeysa Ozturk, a Massachusetts graduate student at Tufts University, had her visa suddenly terminated and she was grabbed off the street and taken into federal custody by masked agents who are not clearly law enforcement. She had co-authored an essay in the student newspaper demanding that Tufts acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.

Mar 27 – ICE executed an arrest on a farm in Sackets Harbor, New York, the hometown of Border Czar Tom Homan. Agents entered a different home on the property, without a judicial warrant, detained a mother and her three children, and moved them to a detention center in Texas. Homan claims they were moved for safety as potential witnesses to crime. NY Governor Kathy Hochul stated, “I want this family returned to New York state and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

Mar 31 – Seventeen more alleged gang members were flown to the El Salvador high-security prison. To avoid directly challenging the judicial ruling to prevent such deportations, the administration did not leverage the Alien Enemies Act. 

Mar 31 – Robert Cerna, the Acting Field Office Director for ICE filed a declaration admitting that an administrative error sent at least one person, Kilmar Abergo Garcia, to the supermax prison in El Salvador. Despite the wrongful deportation, Homeland Security says they will not facilitate his return because they have no jurisdiction since he is no longer in US custody. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, defended the action and continued to state that this person was a convicted gang member – but provided no proof to back up that claim. 

Apr 4 – A federal judge ruled that Kilmar Abergo Garcia must be returned from El Salvador by Monday because of the Trump administration’s illegal action deporting him. In response, the White House deputy chief of staff called the judge a Marxist and the White House press secretary suggested the judge contact the El Salvador president because the US no longer has jurisdiction.  

In Solidarity,
JHISN

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JHISN Newsletter 03/02/2024

Posted on March 2, 2024 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

For several years, JHISN reported on the anti-immigrant campaign of then-President Trump that mocked sanctuary cities and instead aimed to intensify surveillance, harassment, and deportation. Now, a Democratic mayor of New York is himself leading the charge to undermine the city’s decades-old commitment to legal sanctuary and urban refuge for recent migrants. This week’s newsletter offers an update on the cynical moves by the Adams’ administration to deny shelter and social supports to asylum seekers who are, literally, being left out in the cold by merciless new policies. 

As we wrap up this newsletter, protesters are concluding a 24-hour vigil in front of City Hall demanding that the City Council vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. Nearly 70 US cities have passed resolutions calling for an immediate end to Israel’s military assault in the besieged territory, now in its fifth month. The slaughter of civilians, including 12,000 children, has turned into an unfolding genocide. And the blockade of food and water is turning into a forced famine, as over two million Palestinians are facing slow death from starvation and disease, amidst the unending risk of sudden death from Israeli bombardment and snipers. Support a ceasefire now!

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Mayor attacks sanctuary

1. Adams is Everything Abbott Wanted

When right-wing Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to New York City in the summer of 2022, he was hoping to “own the libs.” He planned to challenge NYC’s “sanctuary city” declaration and its immigrant-friendly reputation, exposing them as a bunch of virtue signaling—a hypocritical pose that he figured would melt away when confronted with the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers.

In fact, as we have reported, grassroots community groups, public workers, progressive activists, and ordinary residents have risen to the challenge, welcoming migrants and offering aid. And the migrants themselves have shown incredible fortitude and resilience.

But Abbott scored a bullseye when it comes to our mayor. Eric Adams has played right into the Texas governor’s hands. Instead of welcoming migrants, as he solemnly promised to do, Adams now bullies and attacks them. His administration scapegoats asylum seekers, branding them as criminals. To complete his surrender to the Right, Adams has openly asserted that he wants to gut New York’s sanctuary city laws. “We can’t even turn [asylum seekers] over to ICE,” he laments.

Adams is doing everything he can to discourage asylum seekers, and to punish those who do make it to New York. In October, he made a trip to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador to “personally deliver a stern message to would-be migrants thinking of applying for asylum in the US and heading for New York City.” “There is no more room in New York,” he announced. Adams even had a flyer printed up for distribution at the US-Mexico border, telling asylum seekers—people fleeing violence and discrimination—that NYC, one of the richest cities in the world, doesn’t want them. 

Adams’ abuse of asylum seekers already living in NYC is similarly aimed at discouraging migrants and positioning himself strategically at their expense.  Embracing cruelty as a weapon of politics, the mayor is currently intent on forcing asylum seekers out of NYC shelters, As The City reports:

“Last fall the city began limiting adult shelter stays to 30 days, while beginning to dole out 60-day eviction notices to some migrant families with children. Families with children are now sent back to the Roosevelt Hotel for another shelter placement when their time runs out.

“For adults whose 30 days in shelter has run out, the wait for a new shelter placement can last more than a week, during which time people lining up outside the East Village site have limited access to showers, food, and even bathrooms. Once the site closes in the evening, 25% of respondents reported that they’d slept outside or on the trains, while 4% said a family member or friend took them in.

 “About 67% of those surveyed said they had spent the night in a “shelter,” with many ending up at the city’s five overnight waiting rooms where people can rest on the ground or in chairs without cots.”

Astonishingly, the mayor is now trying to close down even these five bare-bones waiting rooms—last-ditch places that at least have bathrooms and protection from the weather. 

For Adams, creating visible street homelessness or chaos among migrants isn’t a human tragedy—it’s the centerpiece of a cynical strategy. He hopes to not only force migrants to leave the city (and discourage new migrants from coming), but also to mobilize anti-immigrant sentiment and politics to his advantage. The mayor is trying to use homeless migrants—those who he literally is making homeless—to create a public spectacle of street disorder and budget cuts. He is creating conditions for the Right to manufacture xenophobic  “quality of life”  and “migrant crime” narratives.

“I’ve said this a couple of months ago, the visualization of this crisis is going to become aware for New Yorkers. We stated we were out of room. And the cost of doing this … it was a weight we could not continue to carry.” —Mayor Adams (The City, 2/16/24)

Eric Adams, mayor of a sanctuary city, has apparently calculated that it’s useful to position himself as the scourge of asylum seekers and the enemy of sanctuary. Disregarding his cratering support among Latinos, he seems to think that appeasing anti-immigrant racists and reactionaries is his best chance at getting reelected. 

But New York is a city of immigrants, and most of us like it that way. And despite Eric Adams, asylum seekers are quickly becoming part of the fabric of the city. They’re cooking, driving, cleaning, vending, delivering food, providing care, building scaffolding, and hanging drywall. They’ve become integral to the city’s schools, advocacy groups, churches, workplaces. They are New Yorkers now.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN) 

 

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JHISN Newsletter 09/09/2023

Posted on September 9, 2023 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

JHISN has been around for just over six years—a youngster in relation to many local immigrant justice groups. But we are old enough to have learned the difficult lesson that many justice groups know too well: hard-won activist victories are also hard to sustain. In this newsletter, we report on how the Biden administration and corporate capitalism are undermining New Jersey activists’ successful attempt to shut down privately contracted immigrant detention centers in the state. La lucha continúa …The struggle goes on.

We are delighted to also offer an introduction to a new neighbor—The World’s Borough Bookshop just opened its doors on 73rd St and 34th Ave. We encourage you to visit and explore this wonderful community space.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. New bookstore comes to Jackson Heights
  2. Notorious privately-run detention jail in NJ supported by Biden’s DOJ

1. The World’s Borough Gets a New Bookstore

Seven years ago, Adrian Cepeda had a dream: open a bookstore here in Jackson Heights. Today that dream has an address: 3406 73rd Street. The World’s Borough Bookshop, located just off the neighborhood’s Open Street, launched for business on August 5. Its shelves are filled with Latinx and Black fiction and nonfiction, literature by Desi authors, Queens writers, manga comics, and a selection of used books. There’s a colorful kids’ room with children’s books in Portuguese, Bangla, Mandarin, and Urdu.

 “Por y Para La Communidad” (“for and by the community”) reads the banner at the entrance. With comfortable couches inside, and tables on the sidewalk, the world’s borough bookstore invites students-after-school, parents with excited kids, or teachers looking for an English translation of García Márquez, to linger for conversation, or to just sit and read in the late summer sun. Cepeda, who curates the store’s selection of BIPOC-only (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) books himself, is looking to the community for ideas and desires about what our local bookstore should be. “I want to make it a very Queens bookstore,” he smiles.

Growing up in Jackson Heights, Cepeda credits his mom—who also grew up in the neighborhood—with nourishing his love of reading with trips to the JH Public Library. But he is committed to making the World’s Borough Bookstore attractive to both readers and non-readers alike, a place where people can fall in love with books for the very first time.

2. Biden Continues Expanding 40-Year Policy of For-Profit Detention

In August of 2021, New Jersey implemented Sanctuary Law AB5207 banning ICE contracts with private detention facilities—a victory for the years-long activist struggle to close down private, for-profit detention. The law successfully resulted in closing three New Jersey detention centers, leaving just one operating: the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC). However, private contractor CoreCivic challenged AB5207 as unconstitutional for violating the Supremacy Clause, which gives federal laws precedence over state laws. The federal contract with CoreCivic to house migrants in EDC was set to expire in September of this year and was an opportunity for Biden to follow through on campaign promises to end private detention. 

As a presidential candidate, Biden said, “No business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence,” and proclaimed private detention centers, “should not exist. And we are working to close all of them.” Although he signed an executive order last January to end the use of private prisons under the Department of Justice (DOJ), that order does not apply to immigrant detention because Homeland Security is not under the DOJ. 

Last March, after President Biden’s 2024 budget proposal increased ICE and Border Patrol funding, Make The Road NY joined with New Jersey-based immigration support groups NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ), Wind of Spirit NJ, MinKwon Center NJ, and AFSC Immigrants Rights Program to condemn him. Erik Cruz, of the NJAIJ, accused the Biden administration of supporting “a rollback to his predecessor’s worst and cruelest policies.” Soon after, 223 organizations signed a letter demanding asylum seekers and other migrants not be placed behind bars in immigration detention.

After Title 42 was repealed in May, a new set of immigration restrictions was introduced, and a review launched by senior immigration officials identified about two dozen detention centers to be scaled back, reformed, or closed. Only three closed. During 2022, the Biden administration actually increased the number of detainees held in private facilities to 90%–compared to 80% at the end of Trump’s administration. Revenues for one private prison company, GEO Group, reportedly jumped by more than $1 billion (an almost 40% increase).

Then, in July, the CoreCivic case against AB5207 gained a boost from Biden’s DOJ which filed an amicus brief supporting the CoreCivic injunction. The DOJ called the Elizabeth facility “mission critical” because of its proximity to Newark and JFK airports; they described direct flights out of the United States as “crucial” for removals. Instead of acknowledging that detainees could be released to family and community, Biden’s DOJ filing highlighted the increased costs for out-of-state relocations and transportation to alternative detention facilities which limits access to families and legal counsel. It also focused on possible worst-case scenarios saying shutting down the center could lead to the release of “dangerous noncitizens.”

50 local groups, including DetentionWatch, called the Biden administration’s support of the CoreCivic suit “bitterly disappointing but unsurprising.” They called on NJ Governor Murphy to shut down EDC, reminding everyone that detainees had long complained about problematic conditions at EDC: the facility is set up to have just one bathroom for every 40 people; birds inside reportedly defecated on beds; people were abused by staff; and there has been a lack of sanitary pads. 

A “free them all” rally was held on August 20th to defend AB5207 and demand the facility’s closure. Five days later, ten New Jersey congressional leaders joined with 41 immigrant support organizations and delivered a letter to the DOJ expressing concern for the Biden Administration’s support of the private prison company. Li Adorno of Movimiento Cosecha said later of Biden, “He could actually shut down the Elizabeth Center at any moment, any given day …This is it—his time to shine, and he’s not shining.”

Instead of shining, Biden did nothing to close EDC, nor end the contract. At the end of August, Judge Kirsch declared AB5207 unconstitutional and within a day a $20 million 12-month contract between ICE and CoreCivic was signed. Judge Kirsch had ruled the NJ law was “naked interference” with federal immigration enforcement and was “a dagger aimed at the heart of the federal government’s immigration enforcement mission and operations.” Kathy O’Leary, the Director of Pax Christi and one of many activists, including Unidad Latina and Movimiento Cosecha, protesting the ruling outside the federal immigration building in Newark, responded to his grotesque dagger statement:

“We cannot stab a dagger into the heart of ICE. It has no heart, it’s not a person. The people in ICE’s cages—they can bleed, they can shed tears. That’s who we should be concerned about.” 

Yanet Candelario of The Mami Chelo Foundation, who spent time inside the walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, said when Biden was elected president, she was happy. “I thought he would end the Trump era of terror, where children were separated from their parents and kept in cages like animals.” She continued, “I believed he would make a difference in a country where immigrants have fewer rights…I don’t think Biden knows that people are dying in immigration detention because they have been denied medical attention, but I also expect him to keep his promises and end a system that denies us our humanity.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 12/31/2022

Posted on December 31, 2022 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

As the year 2022 comes to a close, we invite our readers to look back on some of the recent activism of local immigrant groups, and look ahead to the ongoing struggle to dismantle the US detention and deportation system. We feature the recent activities of three vibrant organizations—NICE, DRUM, and Make the Road NY—that each have a base here in central Queens. And we report on what a ‘true’ alternative to detention might be while remembering that, as the new year approaches, over 23,000 immigrants are currently in detention, and over 377,000 people are being monitored under ICE’s ‘Alternative to Detention’ (ATD) programs.

As we usher in 2023, we wish you joy, and community, and collective imaginings of a more just world for all.

Newsletter highlights:
  1. Year-end activities of local immigrant-led groups
  2. Implementing real alternatives to detention

1. Local Immigrant Justice Groups@End of Year 2022

As the calendar year turns, we take a look at three immigrant-led groups based here in Central Queens, and report back on some of their recent activism and advocacy. 

NICE (New Immigrant Community Empowerment) held a demonstration with City Council member Shekar Krishnan in front of City Hall on November 22, advocating for more resources to fight against wage theft. Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to not being fully paid for their work, or not being paid at all. 

NICE’s commitment to protecting workers includes their support for Carlos’ Law. Named for Carlos Moncayo, a 22-year-old undocumented Ecuadorian construction worker killed on the job in 2015, the bill was proposed in 2018 and passed the NY State Legislature in August. It would raise the maximum fine for criminal liability for worker injury or death from $10,000 to no less than $500,000, or, in the case of a misdemeanor, no less than $300,000. The bill has been sitting unsigned on the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul, even though three more workers were killed this November, for a total of at least 24 construction worker deaths this year. Over 80% of construction workers who die in New York are employed at non-union work sites, and immigrant construction workers are disproportionately vulnerable to dying on the job. 

On December 13, members of NICE together with CUFFH (Churches United for Fair Housing), CASA, Make the Road NY and Center for Popular Democracy rallied in Washington, DC, to demand climate, health, economic and immigration justice. NICE met with six different congressional offices: Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Grace Meng, and Nadya Velazquez.

The Omnibus federal budget bill recently approved by Congress allots $500,000 to NICE.

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) joined more than 100 organizations on November 15 calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to designate Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Special Student Status (SSR) for Pakistani nationals working and studying in the US. The devastating floods of 2022 have created ongoing health and economic crises in Pakistan, with at least 33 million people (1 in 7 Pakistanis) directly affected by the disaster. No safe return of Pakistani immigrants to their country of origin is currently possible. Support TPS and SSR for Pakistani by signing this petition. 

DRUM’s director of organizing, Kazi Fouzia Kabir, joined Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s delegation in November at the United Nation’s COP27 meetings in Egypt. Kabir works to connect with civil and government representatives from countries that DRUM’s members come from, in order to coordinate their demands for climate justice.

On November 22 and again on December 7, DRUM participated in a Care Not Cuts rally at City Hall demanding that Mayor Adams protect city services for working-class New Yorkers—threatened by Adams’ proposed budget cuts in fiscal 2023—and roll back the Mayor’s dangerous plan to forcibly detain New Yorkers deemed by the NYPD to have a mental illness. The proposed budget cuts and hiring freeze will affect vital city services, including a proposed cut to the extension of the universal 3-K Child Care Program. DRUM is fighting for housing, childcare, education, and care, instead of cuts and criminalization.  

DRUM is also working with ICE Out! NYC, Make the Road NY, African Communities Together (ACT), and other immigrant justice organizations to advocate for three crucial bills being considered by the City Council. The proposed legislation would further restrict the city from funneling people into ICE custody and detention by: ensuring accountability and compliance with existing detainer laws; limiting the Department of Corrections from communicating with ICE about a person’s release; and limiting the NYPD’s ability to hold a person for ICE.

Make the Road NY’s (MTRNY) Trans Immigrant Project (TrIP) held a vigil on November 19 in Corona Plaza to honor the lives of trans and gender-diverse siblings lost in 2022 and previous years. They renewed their commitment to protecting those who are still with us, and the generations that come after us.

MTRNY also held a series of Town Halls for members to meet with Queens legislators ahead of the 2023 legislative session. The November 16 Town Hall included State Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly members Catalina Cruz, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Juan Ardila, and Steven Raga. Two more events were held on November 17 in Brooklyn and November 29 in Westchester.

On November 16, MTRNY launched its 2023-24 Respect and Dignity for All state policy platform to address the persistent inequities across NY State and improve the lives of immigrant, Black, and brown families. Proposals include:

  • Permanent inclusion in the unemployment system for all. Excluded No More.
  • Ensure immigrant healthcare access. Coverage for All.
  • Pass Good Cause Eviction legislation to bring renter’s rights to tenants in smaller buildings.
  • Pass the Solutions Not Suspensions Act for youth.
  • Pass the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act

The just-passed federal budget allots $400,000 to MTRNY which will help them implement their policies.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
  • Sign the petition supporting TPS for Pakistani immigrants.
  • If you are able, make a donation to any of the local immigrant activist and advocacy groups mentioned here–check their website for donation information!

2. The Real Alternative to Detention is No Detention

“The point is not to provide an alternative to electronic monitoring, an alternative to probation …  and so on—but to look instead at the actual problems we face, and to take lessons from projects around the country that are addressing these problems in effective ways.” –Prison by Any Other Name, by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law (p.241)

Immigrant advocates including Mijente, Detention Watch Network (DWN), the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with the Center for Migration Studies have each issued reports opposing ISAP (Intensive Supervision Appearance Program), an Alternative to Detention (ATD) program run by ICE agents. They highlight the many problems of ISAP, and the value of community-based support programs as true alternatives to detention. ISAP, launched in 2004, is run by prison corporations and has been renewed four times despite sustained criticism by immigrants and activists. 

The government has piloted a few community-based ATD programs. In 2000, the Vera Institute for Justice worked with the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) to run one such ATD called the Appearance Assistance Program (AAP). The AAP was a break from the carceral approach to immigration policy which ramped up after Cuban and Haitian refugees arrived on Florida’s shores in the late 1980s, prompting Congress to amend the Immigration and Naturalization Act to require mandatory detention for immigrants with specific criminal convictions. The association of immigration with criminality was expanded by the 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) which increased the scope of mandatory detention and captured legal permanent residents as well. 

Despite the AAP’s non-carceral success, with 90% of participants attending their court hearings, the aftermath of September 11, 2001, reconfigured immigration policy as a national security issue. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002 prioritized immigrant surveillance, deportation, and the escalation of detention. ISAP became the primary ATD program supported by DHS, which leverages smartphone and facial recognition software, ankle monitors, and telephone check-ins with ICE agents with a focus on discipline and supervision, not community support.

The chart below shows the increase over time of funding allocations to ATD programs, including ISAP, as daily enrollment in those programs grew, spiking at almost 225% under President Biden in one year. The chart clearly shows government spending is not reduced with ATDs because they continue to spend on detention. The data reveal that ATDs like ISAP are not a real alternative, but an addition to detention. The chart also illustrates how bed quotas in private detention facilities keep detention costs consistently high even though the actual detention population recently dropped due to the unjustified use of Title 42 as an immigration enforcement tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some claim that the ISAP program is better than detention as a more humane way to approach the problem of immigration management. Participants in the program have agreed that given a choice between detention or not, then ISAP is preferred. But the report Tracked and Trapped: Experiences from ICE’s Digital Prisons shows the direct human impact that ISAP has on people (not by comparison with detention): 

  • When there are problems with the technology, ICE case officers will not blame the technology, instead punishment will fall on the participant. Because the ISAP program is run by a prison subsidiary company, the threat of detention is immediate for non-compliance.
  • Smartphone monitoring data constantly tracks people with no restrictions on how that data will be used. In fact, ISAP data was used in 2019 to assist in a Mississippi ICE raid to arrest 680 immigrant workers in meat processing plants, 300 of whom were later released. 
  • Ankle monitors have notably caused irritation, bleeding, or even electro-shocked the wearer—possibly because they are being worn for over 10 times longer than the intended length of time. 
  • 97% of people surveyed reported feeling social stigma or isolation, and two-thirds reported job-related issues. 
  • Black immigrants are given the ankle shackle twice as often as others. 

Detention Watch Network criticizes these ATD approaches as Alternatives to Freedom, but there are programs that can be community-based true alternatives, and ISAP is not the sole approach that ICE takes with ATDs. Parole allows people to live freely while they navigate their immigration cases—95% of Ukrainians were granted this option to escape the war with Russia, but only 11% of non-Ukranians were given this option during the same timeframe. In January 2016, ICE set up the Family Case Management Program (FCMP), an ATD without punitive and restrictive measures which did not use ankle monitors. The program successfully maximized court hearing attendance and ICE appointments. It was also significantly cheaper than the detention costs at just $38 each day per family unit instead of $320 per detainee per day. President Trump chose to eliminate this successful program after just one year. He also adjusted the Risk Classification Assessment (RCA) algorithm used to advise if someone can be released from detention and placed into an ATD—as a result, the continued detention of low-risk individuals rose from around 50% to 97%. When later seen by a human case officer, about 40% of people were released on bond. In 2020 the Bronx Defenders and the ACLU brought a lawsuit against ICE for adjusting RCA as a violation of due process and federal immigration law that calls for “individualized determinations” about a person’s release. 

Much immigrant justice work has tried to ensure that legal representation is provided to protect due process. However, as with the criminal justice system, the guarantee of due process does not always lead to a better outcome, which would be no detention and no deportation. But there are community programs working independently of the government that offer prime examples of successful ATDs: the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, NYIFUP, is a coalition of groups with a process that strives for a different outcome from all the rest. It resulted in a 48% non-deportation outcome–a different measure than ensuring participation in court appearances and ICE meetings. That is a real alternative with a valuable outcome for immigrants.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

 

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JHISN Newsletter 03/05/2022

Posted on March 5, 2022 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

This week, on the eve of President Biden’s State of the Union address, hundreds gathered in Washington DC, for a counter-event addressing the true #StateOfOurLives. Immigrant justice groups came together demanding that the administration fulfill its promises to end Title 42, extend TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for vulnerable immigrant groups, and create a path to citizenship for millions.

Our newsletter this week reports on the #StateOfOurLives among immigrant communities close to home – from the Valentine’s Day of Action mobilized by Jackson Heights-based NICE, to the recent hunger strike among 50 detainees incarcerated just north of NYC, to Adkhikaar’s activism focused on low-wage, women of color workers in the nail salon industry. We honor these vibrant, necessary, ongoing local justice struggles. 

Newsletter highlights:
  1. NICE in solidarity with ‘A Day Without Immigrants’
  2. Detainee hunger strike at Orange County Jail 
  3. Adkhikaar’s ‘All Hands In!’ for nail salon workers 

1. NICE Joins ‘A Day Without Immigrants’

There are tens of millions of immigrants living and working in the United States. New York City alone is home to 3.1 million immigrants and more than half a million undocumented residents. What would happen if for one day they didn’t go to work or school, and didn’t spend any money?

Carlos Eduardo Espina, a 23-year-old immigrant from Uruguay with 2.5 million followers on TikTok, wanted to find out. So he encouraged immigrants to use February 14, 2022, as the day to skip work or skip school, and not spend any money. People in the U.S. typically spend $23.9 billion on Valentine’s Day; an action on that day would be a graphic illustration of how important immigrants are to the U.S. economy.

More than 2,600 businesses across the U.S. pledged to close for the day in solidarity with the protest, including 66 New York-based businesses. Members of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), located here in Jackson Heights, participated in A Day Without Immigrants by sponsoring a full day of events in Union Square and an evening rally in Times Square. 

In Union Square, NICE held a press conference demanding an end to workers’ exclusion from government assistance, including unemployment insurance, followed by a Know Your Rights presentation. The lively Times Square rally had close to one hundred participants, most wearing NICE’s signature yellow T-shirts. Their leaflet called for the right to decent housing, life without fear of deportation, and dignified union jobs. Impassioned speeches by members of NICE and other participating groups were interspersed with energetic chants and drumming.

Similar demonstrations took place in fifteen other U.S. cities. Protests in Washington, DC, and Ogden, Utah, were especially large, and the United Farm Workers (UFW) organized walkouts in five California locations emphasizing that much of our food is produced by immigrants.

According to the American Immigration Council, in 2019 immigrant-led families in the U.S. controlled about $1.3 trillion in spending power, paying approximately $331 billion in federal taxes and $162 billion in state and local taxes. Undocumented families alone contributed $19 billion in federal taxes and almost $12 billion in state and local taxes.

 The recent Executive Director of NICE, Manuel Castro, is now Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, appointed by Mayor Adams. This is a good omen for immigrant affairs in our city.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

2. Hunger Strike at the Orange County Jail

“[P]eople arrested for immigration offenses are supposed to be individually evaluated as to whether they are a flight risk or threat to public safety. If not, they are supposed to be released on bond or their own recognizance. But the New York ICE field office is jailing virtually everybody …. According to the NY Civil Liberties Union, ‘ICE has secretly decided to detain thousands of New Yorkers unlawfully, inflicting enormous and entirely unnecessary harms.’”  –JHISN Newsletter (12/19/2020)

We wrote these words during a courageous hunger strike by immigrants detained at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey. Supported by vigorous demonstrations outside the facility, striker demands included an end to inhumane conditions, and release while waiting for their immigration hearings. 

A year later, at the end of 2021, the immigrant decarceration movement celebrated its success in forcing New Jersey to close all immigrant detention facilities. Unfortunately, as we reported at that time, many of the ICE detainees were simply transferred to NY State jails instead of being released to their families.

 The Orange County Jail in Goshen, NY, about 65 miles from Jackson Heights, is a known hellhole. In 2018, a detainee hunger strike protested out-of-control practices of solitary confinement. In 2020, another hunger strike was launched over denial of visitation and lack of hot meals. 

Now comes word that more than 40 immigrants detained at the OC Jail started a new hunger strike on February 17, provoked by widespread racist abuses. The strikers also complained about religious discrimination and “spoiled, stinking food.” Some of the strikers reported intense retaliation for the strike. A coalition of community groups denounced the jail’s “racist and retaliatory abuse, violence and medical neglect,” calling for the termination of its ICE contract and release of all immigrant detainees. The immigrants’ protest seems to have ended on February 20, after an ICE official visited the facility. Two corrections officers were transferred out of the ICE unit soon afterward.

This week there was a flurry of new activity by detainee allies, partly inspired by the hunger strike. A Dignity Not Detention week of action featured a City Council hearing on conditions in immigrant detention facilities, as well as testimony in Albany supporting legislation to close detention centers. On Thursday there was a rally in Foley Square to demand the release of all immigrant detainees. 

 WHAT CAN WE DO?

​​3. #AllHandsIn for Nail Salon Workers

As the only community and worker rights center in the US dedicated to the Nepali-speaking community, Adhikaar is familiar with breaking new ground. In January 2022, the Woodside-based immigrant justice group introduced a first-in-the-nation bill to raise industry standards for nail salon workers across New York. As they launch an ‘All Hands In’ campaign to support the bill, Adhikaar is committed to member leadership and worker-led organizing by immigrant women of color. 

 The legislation would create a statewide council bringing together government officials, employers, and nail salon workers themselves to identify ways to improve the industry. Adhikaar member leader Sweta Thakali explains:

 “If anyone knows what needs to be changed it’s us who are in the industry. Our income is not stable, we face discrimination, we work without breaks, we are guaranteed no benefits and we work in unhealthy conditions. This council will give us the chance to be heard and win the ability to come to the table and speak up for what we need.”    –S. Thakali (1/26/2022)

 Partnering with State Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens and the NY Healthy Nail Salon Coalition, Adhikaar aims to redress decades of labor rights violations, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions for nail salon workers that have only worsened during the pandemic.

 New York State has over 5700 nail salons, with the largest concentration in New York City. At the same time, NYC has some of the lowest prices in the country for a manicure ($13.70 on average in NYC and Long Island). Immigrant women of color make up the vast majority of salon workers, with 73% of all nail technicians in New York identifying as Asian or Pacific Islander, and 21% as Latinx.  

 In 2015, Adhikaar helped win the fight for a NY Nail Salon Workers’ Bill of Rights – another first in the US. As a powerful, local, women-led immigrant justice group, Adhikaar is poised to continue breaking new ground for workers’ rights and economic justice in the nail salon industry. 

 WHAT CAN WE DO?

 

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN. 

 

 

JHISN Newsletter 12/18/2021

Posted on December 18, 2021 by - News, Newsletter

Dear friends,

The days grow short as the winter solstice approaches. At this darkest time of year, we celebrate the power of community and the promise of collective warmth in our immigrant neighborhood here in the heart of Queens. We celebrate the political promise of hundreds of thousands of immigrants now enfranchised to vote in local elections, as NYC joins over a dozen US communities where non-citizens have the right to vote.

In this issue, we offer you a local story of how the historic fight to fund excluded workers in New York State has been curated into a museum exhibition in Queens. And we report on the statewide campaign to end ICE detention of immigrants, in the context of the 20th-century criminalization of immigrants of color in the US.  

Newsletter highlights:

  1. ‘Nuevayorkinos: Essential and Excluded’ at PS1
  2. Shutting Down ICE Detention 

1. Immigrant Activism Meets Museum Space: Art & Politics @MoMA PS1

The room is sunny, spacious, and quiet. The white museum walls are adorned with colorful banners in Spanish, and photographs of immigrant activists taken last spring at Corona Plaza. In the middle of the room is a comfortable couch and chairs circled around a table with Spanish- and English-language books on immigration history and politics, including a neatly stacked pile of tales of resistance for children.

The exhibition in the “Homeroom,” a community-engagement space at MoMA PS1 in Queens, invites reflection: What is the place of community activism in a museum that contributes to gentrification and community displacement? How can we build popular memory of immigrant struggles using the tools of art and visual culture? Who is this exhibition created for, and who may be excluded by ticket price and social class?

PS1’s exhibition Nuevayorkinos: Essential and Excluded (on view through January 10, 2022) brings together the work of artist Djali Brown-Cepeda and local immigrant groups Make the Road NY, the Street Vendor Project, and NY Communities for Change. At the center of the exhibition is the historic struggle of the Fund for Excluded Workers, and their 23-day hunger strike in spring 2021 that culminated with an unprecedented victory: a $2.1 billion fund in NYS dedicated to immigrant workers excluded from federal programs of pandemic relief and emergency support.

In a corner of the exhibition, providing a rolling soundtrack, are two videos by Jose Armando Solis, filmed on Day 5 and on Day 17 of the hunger strike. As visitors wander in and out of the exhibition space, the voice of hunger striker Ana Ramirez cries out, over and over, “It is not just me but thousands of families—families that went to the bakery to bake the bread so that the rich can eat during this pandemic comfortably. I am forgotten, I am one of the excluded. We are house cleaners, construction workers, restaurant workers, retail workers, laundry workers, all of whom have worked hard for this nation…”

For those of you unfamiliar with the Fund for Excluded Workers, the hunger strike, or the cultural power and beauty of immigrant justice struggles, we encourage you to visit the exhibition. To not forget those who were systematically forgotten. For those of you who have participated in the victorious fight for essential and excluded workers – a fight that is ongoing – we honor your power and the possibility that this exhibition can help strengthen community support and solidarity. For the struggles ahead.

2. ‘Dignity Not Detention’: Decriminalizing Immigration 

“This hard-fought victory reflects the resilience and tenacity of our communities – and reaffirms that our vision of a world without detention is within reach.” –Tania Mattos, Freedom for Immigrants (August 2021)

Sustained activism on the part of immigrants, their families, and immigrant justice activists has succeeded in shutting down ICE detention in the state of New Jersey. The Hudson County Jail processed out its last immigrant prisoner in October. And the last 12 immigrant detainees in the Bergen County Jail were transferred out on November 12. Ending the use of these jails for immigrant detention was a result of militant protests outside the facilities, hunger strikes by prisoners, and an intense publicity and organizing campaign run by activists including the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition. 

Unfortunately, while some immigrants have been released, most of the New Jersey detainees have been transferred to New York State jails such as the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen and the Buffalo Service Processing Center in Batavia. This puts them hundreds of miles farther away from friends, family, and lawyers.

New York State activists hope to keep the anti-detention momentum going with the “Dignity Not Detention Act”  now making its way through the state legislature (it is currently in committee in both houses). The Act would require the termination of all existing ICE contracts for immigrant detention in public jails in New York, including the Goshen and Batavia facilities. Local groups including Centro Corona, DRUM, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, NICE, and Street Vendors Project are supporters of the statewide mobilization for the Act. Similar legislation has already become law in Maryland, California, Washington, and Illinois. Activists in New Mexico launched their own Dignity Not Detention movement in 2019.

But as the ICE detainee transfers from Bergen County make clear, passing state-by-state laws isn’t a panacea. In fact, some immigrants may find themselves transferred even farther away from where they were arrested, to completely different parts of the country. They might also end up in brutal private for-profit jails –  still widely used for ICE detention, despite pledges by the Biden administration to eliminate them.

Nationally, ICE continues to detain tens of thousands of immigrants. Most of these people are simply waiting for their backed-up immigration hearings, which they could do without being jailed. The number of undocumented migrants imprisoned has increased 50% since Joe Biden took office. Conditions in the facilities are often brutal. When immigrants speak out about rampant abuses, they face severe retaliation and ongoing surveillance. 

The criminalization of migrants to the US began in the 1920s with a wave of reactionary anti-immigrant politics that led to a series of quotas, exclusions, and other restrictions on immigration, mainly targeting immigrants of color. In 1929, the Undesirable Aliens Act – authored by an avowed white supremacist and pro-lynching advocate – epitomized the hardening of immigration policing. Entering the US illegally–which had been processed as a civil complaint–suddenly became a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year’s imprisonment and a fine. Returning to the US after deportation was now defined as a felony, resulting in up to two years imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. The Act was intended specifically to control and regulate Mexican labor. In the years after the passage of this law, Mexicans made up as much as 99% of the newly-criminalized immigrants filling just-built federal prisons in El Paso, Tucson, and Los Angeles. (Today, Latinx immigrants still make up 92% of people prosecuted for illegal entry and re-entry to the US.)

The 1929 law was eventually updated by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. This legislation cut the sentences for crossing the border in half but continued to criminalize migrants through its notorious Sections 1325 and 1326. During periods when Mexican labor was in demand, immigrant detentions and prosecutions fell. But starting in 2005, as the “war on terror” ramped up during the Bush and Obama administrations, the federal government once again began prosecuting tens of thousands of migrants and jailing them until their cases could be heard. Donald Trump used Section 1325 as a basis for his infamous “zero tolerance” and family separation policies.

The most effective means of stopping the large-scale detention of immigrants would be a national law that overturns the criminalization of border crossing. (For example, by returning illegal border crossing to its previous status as a civil offense.)  Hundreds of immigrant justice groups have been demanding this kind of federal legislation for years, including local groups like DRUM, Adhikaar, and JHISN. However, decriminalization of border crossing is not included in the current Build Back Better draft legislation. A 2019 decriminalization proposal introduced by Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Jesus Chuy Garcia, has been stalled in Congress, despite the fact that it is endorsed by many immigrant justice groups and has 44 co-sponsors – all Democrats.

And so the end of immigrant detention in New Jersey must be seen as only one hopeful step in a long struggle. Local activists have turned their full attention to fighting against the abuses of immigrant detention in New York State, including punitive transfers, detainee mistreatment, and deportations. At each step, they raise the need for the Dignity Not Detention Act. 

Last Sunday, December 12, a small demonstration took place outside the Bergen County Jail. It commemorated the one-year anniversary of a violent clash with cops that led to the arrest of ten immigrant justice activists. Protesters carried signs saying “Releases Not Transfers,” “Close the Camps,” and “Abolish ICE.”  As Shamz Azanedo, one of the organizers, said, “We didn’t feel right just letting today pass. Today was a huge day last year, and we needed to be here together.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?

In solidarity and with collective care,

Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network (JHISN)

Follow @JHSolidarity on Facebook and Twitter and share this newsletter with friends, families, neighbors, networks, and colleagues so they can subscribe and receive news from JHISN.