The drumbeat of criticism surrounding President Obama’s immigration enforecment strategy is growing louder by the day. America’s Voice released the video above earlier this week, to call out the “rogue tactics” currently in place. While the Service Employees International Union followed up with their own efforts to “Reign in ICE”.
On Wednesday, the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign joined the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Service Employees International Union, the Center for Community Change and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to call for an end to the 287(g) program and for drastic changes in the Department of Homeland Security’s policies and personnel. (Listen to a full audio recording of the press conference here).
In the absence of a comprehensive reform of our immigration system, the task of enforcing our broken laws has fallen to local law enforcement agencies. The so-called 287(g) program, which gives state and local law enforcement agencies authority to enforce immigration laws, has been proven over and over again to be detrimental to public safety and the protection of civil and human rights.
Recently, it has become clear that Department of Homeland Security not only lacks leadership, but doesn’t even have it’s own staff or priorities in line. First there was the leaked policy memo that directly contradicting the President, then it was exposed that Haitian evacuees were rescued from the disastrous earthquake aftermath only to be thrown into detention centers upon arrival in the United States. And only one week later, the Inspector General issued a scathing report of the 287(g) program.
Alex DiBranco of Change.org has a good summary of the criticisms of the program:
Some of the key elements of the smack down: 287(g) is poorly managed, ineffectively organized, and arbitrarily implemented from place to place; ignores or actually provides false information to the public; fails to focus on non-citizens who pose a safety threat; gives shoddy training; and lacks oversight and has not terminated those local partners who have clearly violated the terms of the agreement — Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona is, of course, the poster child for local law enforcement running amok in hunting down harmless undocumented immigrants. 287(g) also deters undocumented immigrants who witness a crime from coming forward and encourages racial profiling in which Latinos are “guilty until proven innocent.”
Instead of change, the Obama administration has delivered more of the same failed policies of the Bush administration. In the wake of these revelations their silence is deafening.
Congress should conduct immediate oversight hearings to ensure accountability at the Department of Homeland Security, shed light on the outrageous actions of the Department’s enforcement and detention personnel, and to dismantle the fatally flawed 287(g) program. The developments over the last two weeks have put a spotlight on ICE’s serious credibility problem. Congress must step in to ensure that government is accountable to the public, using resources efficiently, and that it inspires public confidence. ICE does none of these, and must be held accountable. (Rich Stolz, RI4A)
Today, a New York Times article argues that the program is too broken to be fixed. And we couldn’t agree more.
Categories: comprehensive immigration reform, enforcement
Tags: 287(g), change.org, Department of homeland security, immigration enforcement, immigration reform, inspector general, new york times
