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Community & Criticisms : Looking for the Answers in the Cecilia Muñoz Controversy

11:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Secure Communities · Comments Off

15 Nov 2011

It’s a long way from April, when hardly anyone paid much mind to my critique of the role Cecilia Muñoz, the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, was playing in her defense of the indefensible, the increase in detentions and deportations, and the growing criminalization of communities these increases requires.

Now, there are petitions, open letters, appearances, articles, and attacks. I knew that taking a position that directly challenged Muñoz as the Latina spokesperson for an administration that has actually done worse to our communities would be controversial and would also demand that community organizations who claim legitimacy in their role as community representatives be held accountable. I did/do this, not because it is in my mission statement, nor because I am beholden to any entity beyond the vecinos I stood doing laundry with on Sunday mornings, whom week after week watched Muñoz lie to them on behalf of an administration that promised change. The words in the American Prospect article are completely my own and I stand by them.

It is easy for organizations, their leadership, and the public relations departments housed within them, to attack an individual writer, calling them ill-informed and accusing them (me) of doing a disservice to the community. What has proven more difficult is answering the questions that remain. This is not about what services a specific organization provides nor about if they have condemned an immigration policy that deports an average of 400,000 people a year, leaving thousands of children in foster care. What it is about is answering precisely how does supporting Cecilia Muñoz serve the community? Claims about her attempting to change immigration policy fall flat in the face of reports that show that prosecutorial discretion is not being exercised, bolstering accusations that the Morton Memo and alleged reviews of deportation cases are nothing more than public relation tools.

As more data and documents are released and ICE fights tooth and nail to hide a paper trail that more than likely contains proof of the intentions behind their detention and deportation policies and practices, it falls on organizations claiming to represent community to show why shielding spokespeople for an administration that has failed in fulfilling it’s promises is beneficial.

Everything else, just like in the Obama administration is just PR.

Ending Secure Communities and 287(g) in an Already Anti-Migrant State

1:53 pm By Maegan La Mala · Alabama|Immigration|Politics|Secure Communities · Comments Off

9 Nov 2011

Yesterday, almost civil and human rights organizations from across the United States, and a few international organizations, sent a letter to the Secretary of Honeland Security, urging her to stop deportation programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities in Alabama. Many of the signatories, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), had already been calling for a stop to the policies that currently are deporting about 400,000 people a year in the United States, but the recent implementation of what is being called the harshest anti-migrant law in the country is compelling many to focus on Alabama.

Secretary Napolitano is targeted because the successful implementation of HB 56 is contingent upon cooperation and participation of DHS as the state law relies on the department to take custody of non-citizens identified through HB 56 for detention and deportation. The groups also urged DHS to promote and enforce its own guidance which limits state action in immigration matters, as well as exercise favorable discretion in any case that arises from enforcement of Alabama’s HB 56.

HB 56 combined with ICE pattern and practices specifically threaten Latinos in the state. Since immigration is racialized as a latino issue, people who are perceived as Latino will be targeted. Racial profiling threatens the 185,602 Latinos in Alabama, a population that while making up only 3.9% of the total population according to the 2010 Census, increased 145% in the last decade.

The Department of Justice is currently challenging the constitutionality of HB 56, which went into effect in September. I signed onto to the letter to Secretary Napolitano, but with a healthy dose of cynicism in terms of expectations. The Department of Homeland Security through Napolitano continues to defend it’s deportation record and Secure Communities. The White House continues to defend Secure Communities. It will be interesting to see how the Federal Government, who has helped to create the anti-immigrant atmosphere surrounding states like Alabama, further reacts to the crisis in the state. Will the answer be a policy change or a public relations campaign.

Sources : New America Media

District Court Orders ICE to Release S-Comm Documents

10:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Secure Communities · 1 Comment

25 Oct 2011

Last night, Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to publicly disclose by November 1 a previously withheld internal memorandum that advocates believe will shed light on the agency’s legal justification for turning Secure Communities into a mandatory immigration enforcement program.

You can read the order here (PDF)

The decision follows motions for summary judgment filed by all parties in NDLON v. ICE about the memorandum. The government claimed the memorandum was exempt from disclosure under the attorney-client and deliberative process privileges. Plaintiffs the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Cardozo School of Law Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic argued the memo was improperly kept secret from the public in the midst of important policy decisions related to Secure Communities. Indeed, this summer, opposition to Secure Communities reached new levels with the Governors of Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York formally rejecting the program. In response, ICE announced that all of its Memorandum of Agreements with States were dissolved and that the program would be imposed unilaterally. Despite serious questions from States, local jurisdictions, and advocates about ICE’s legal authority to make the program mandatory, the agency continued to withhold information about its legal reasoning and sought to keep the legal authority memorandum secret.

I’m hoping some of the legal heads from VivirLatino would offer up what the impact could be were it revealed that ICE explicitly meant this policy to be mandatory from inception but chose to deceive states and counties into signing on by implying that participation was optional.

In the end, I am not sure if it even matters. The fact remains that as it stands now, Secure Communities is one part of an overall national immigration policy that is focused on keeping deportation numbers up, while keeping immigrant communities, especially people of color immigrant communities down.

From New America Media : Santa Clara County Ends Collaboration with ICE

7:49 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics|Secure Communities · Comments Off

21 Oct 2011

Mala’s Note – I wanted to include this post from two days ago, made available to us at no cost from NAM, because of it’s relation to our continuing coverage to our recent original post on the Frontline report and recent S-Comm statistics. I felt it was important to show how a local jurisdiction can send a message of how they will work with immigrant communities. It doesn’t go as far as it should but it certainly isn’t following the lead of places like Arizona and Alabama, now is it following the deportation priorities of the Obama administration.

New America Media, News Feature and Video, Raj Jayadev and Fernando Perez

Santa Clara County Ends Collaboration with ICE, Creates Local Protections Against “Secure Communities” Program from DE BUG on Vimeo.

In what has been heralded as the most progressive policy in the nation, Santa Clara County today voted in a new set of guidelines for civil immigration detainers, which in effect ends the county’s collaboration with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).

Supervisor George Shirakawa, who championed the policy, told an audience of supporters after the County Board of Supervisors’ vote, “Today is historic. We now have the most progressive policy in this field, and the whole nation will be looking at us as Santa Clara County makes it official: we don’t do ICE’s job.”

Civil immigration detainers are requests from ICE to the county to detain jailed individuals after the completion of their sentence from a criminal charge in order for them to get picked up for immigration detention and deportation proceedings.

For immigrant advocates and county officials, the new policy – which will only honor a detainer request if, “there is a written agreement with the federal government by which all costs incurred by the County in complying with the ICE detainer will be reimbursed” — is a way to exert local control in the face of a controversial federal ICE program called Secure Communities. Having been rolled out in 2008, Secure Communities uses fingerprints gathered at jails to notify ICE agents of the immigration status of individuals to then initiate detainer requests. Since the inception of the program, the federal government has not reimbursed any county which has honored detainer requests issued through Secured Communities.

The program has received pushback from counties and states who say Secure Communities violates targeted individuals’ constitutional protections, places financial hardships on cash-strapped counties, and jeopardizes public safety by making immigrant communities fearful of law enforcement. In describing the often contentious relationship with ICE regarding Secure Communities, Supervisor Dave Cortese said, “Frankly, there has been a lack of integrity from ICE on these issues. Today, we are sending a message, one county at a time, you need to fix what’s broken before you ask us to enforce bad laws.”

Cortese’s frustration comes from a history of written commitments he says “were reneged upon” by ICE. The agency initially told counties that they had the option to opt out of Secure Communities only to rescind that offer after counties attempted to do so in 2010. Santa Clara County was one of the first in the country to attempt the opt-out. In the wake of ICE’s re-positioning around the opt-out, counties critical of Secure Communities were at a crossroads as to how to limit the fallout of the program.

Santa Clara County formed a taskforce of law enforcement agencies, informed by County Counsel, to craft a policy around the principle operating mechanism of Secured Communities – the detainer request — given ICE’s shifting information regarding the program.

On October 5, 2011, the taskforce came up with a policy that would limit the county to only honor detainers after conviction (through Secure Communities, even those who had not been found guilty of the crime that placed them in jail were still vulnerable to a detainer hold), would not honor detainer requests for juveniles, and would only honor requests for a specific list of “serious” and “violent” felonies.

Given that individuals convicted of this subset of criminal charges would go to the state prison system, rather than stay in the county jail once convicted, the policy in practice would mean only a narrow few would be subject to county detainer holds. Yet, as the taskforce recommendation moved along to the full County Board of Supervisors for a final vote, Supervisor Shirakawa, the head of the Public Safety and Justice Committee, added an amendment which further limits the scope of when the county would honor detainer requests.

His amendment added language around only considering detainer requests when given a written agreement for reimbursement by the federal government, and stating that except for particular circumstances, “ICE agents shall not be given access to individuals or be allowed to use County facilities for investigative interviews or other purposes, and County personnel shall not expend County time or resources responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding individuals’ incarceration or release date.”

In explaining the amendment to the rest of the Board, he said, “ICE has lied to us in the past with Secure Communities. We need to say enough is enough.”

Jazmin Segura, a policy analyst for Services, Immigrants Rights and Education, is part of a cross-ethnic county-wide coalition of civil rights organizations who has been pushing for the policy since Secure Communities was first introduced.

She says, “We congratulate the County Board of Supervisors for taking this historic step in sending a clear message to immigrant communities that local law enforcement is
not ICE.”

Segura says since Secure Communities was introduced, her office has received an uptick in calls from immigrant residents who were victims of crime, yet fearful to contact law enforcement.

While Segura says the policy change will greatly impact immigrant communities in Santa Clara County, some advocates see the policy as a signal that the tide is shifting as local communities develop similar strategies to respond to an increase in ICE enforcement.

Angela Junk, a staff attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, works with similar coalitions as the Santa Clara group in regions across the country. She says, “This policy sends the message that local participation in the enforcement of immigration laws is not mandatory and that due process and equal treatment under the law applies to all persons in the U.S.”

Lost in Detention Gives Attention to Immigrant Detention and S-Comm but Lacks Alternatives

1:04 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|Media|Politics|Secure Communities · Comments Off

19 Oct 2011

As Bianca posted yesterday, last night PBS’s Frontline featured Lost in Detention with Maria Hinojosa. The hour long investigative show looked at the immigration detention policies that have expanded under the Obama administration, specifically the impact of Secure Communities and the abuses in the ever expanding immigration jail industry.

I watched the special report last night and sadly wasn’t surprised by anything presented. The issue of how the Obama administration has focused on increasing deportations, using programs like Secure Communities, is one we have covered for years. I expect though that this program exposed how the current immigration policy is tearing apart families and leading to physical and sexual abuse inside the big business of detention centers to a new audience.

One of the disappointments I was left with after watching Lost in Detention was the way the show seemed to serve as a mic for the excuses given by the Obama administration for the terror it’s policies create. The answer that seemed to be given by Hinojosa for the question “what can be done to stop the deportations and growth of abuses?” was Comprehensive Immigration Reform. There were snippets of speeches by Obama and an interview with the administration’s vendecomunidad Latina spokesmodel Cecilia Muñoz. Some choice quotes from Muñoz:

“even broken laws have to be enforced.”

“as long as congress gives us $ to deport 400,000. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Maria Hinojosa Talks About Her Documentary “Lost In Detention”

5:01 pm By BiancaLaureano · Immigration|Obama|Politics|Secure Communities|society · Comments Off

17 Oct 2011

“Lost In Detention” will air tomorrow, Tuesday October 18, 2011 on PBS and examines the Obama administration’s immigration policy. Maria Hinojosa a FRONTLINE correspondent has travelled parts of the southern US and visited 3 immigrant detention facilities over a one year period. Below is an interview with Hinojosa from Presente.org discussing her documentary.

You may watch the documentary on PBS or online. As an educator I’ve used FRONTLINE documentaries in my classes each semester and they have provided amazing discussions. Often FRONTLINE produces additional teaching tools so that they may be accessible and used by community members, activists, and educators all over. I encourage you to each check out the website if you would like to see what they have available for this documentary.

The press release by PBS reads:
Read more…

Undocumented Youth Send Message Ahead of North Carolina DNC ; Are Arrested

6:31 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration|North Carolina|Secure Communities · 9 Comments

8 Sep 2011

Ten undocumented youth were arrested on Tuesday during an act of civil disobedience at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to DREAM Activist , the action was a protest against a number of anti-immigrant policies in the state including discriminatory policies towards undocumented students at community colleges, and the criminalization of the undocumented community as a result of programs like 287g and Secure Communities, which is active in 100% of counties in North Carolina. The site was also chosen because and to hold the Democratic party accountable to their inaction and often supportive hand in perpetuating this current attack on the immigrant community. Charlotte was also targeted because it is the site of the Democratic National Convention next year, and the current Democrat led administration has so far deported over a million immigrants and have expanded enforcement policies. It also cannot be forgotten that when the DREAM Act came before Congress last year, Democratic North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan voted against the bill.

While Communities Denounce S-Comm, White House Sends its Latina Spokesmodel to Defend It

29 Aug 2011

A spokesmodel is a spokesperson whose physical appearance contributes to brand equity.
When I think of Latina spokesmodels, I think of the women of Sabado Gigante : leggy, tetona, culona bottle blonde white women smiling holding up the next product we just have to have. They are stereotypical examples of what Latinidad should be and in general mass audiences comsume that image, internalize that identity, as much as whatever dishwashing soap the jingle is asking us to purchase.

Cecilia Muñoz, the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House, plays an equivalent role well in Latino politics. She has proven to be the Latina spokesmodel for Obama’s immigration policy, prioritizing deportations over any executive action that could be taken and attempting to sell this destructive product to us in English and Spanish.

In response to the coordinated protests across the country happening against the expansion of the Secure Communities deportation policy, the White House officially responded through a post, with Muñoz’s name, on the official White House Blog.

The title of the post, In the Debate Over Immigration and Deportations, the Facts Matter, implies that the protesters, organizations and community members are lying about the impact of Secure Communities. In other words : potential Latino voters – the White House doesn’t believe you.

Their is a call growing for Cecilia Muñoz to resign from her position. Many feel that she is incapable of stepping back and actually listening to criticisms. Some may say she is simply doing her job and that Latinos should be happy to have someone in the White House. We are told to wait until November of 2012 and let the election sort it out, not to personalize the issue. That this S-Comm is part of a larger immigration policy strategy and that Muñoz is a genius and has done much in terms of immigration.
I counter that asking how many deportations past the one million mark will we be at in 2012. Is this level of deception acceptable because it is coming from the Democratic Party and not the GOP? I am pretty certain that those whose loved ones are being deported take the issue very personally.

This is not about quitate tu pa’ponerme yo. This is not about careerism. Certainly this is about a policy that is destroying families under the cover of taking care of the “bad guys”. Cecilia Muñoz can keep selling with a smile, a service that is harmful to our communities, or she can keep it real and resign.

From Coast to Coast : More Actions Against Secure Communities

12:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Immigration|Justice|New York City|Secure Communities · 1 Comment

26 Aug 2011

When the Secure Communities Task Force took their sham of a “community hearing” to Arlington, Virginia earlier this week, they heard testimony for, but mostly against the deportation policy that has contributed to a million deportations under the Obama administration.

It should be noted, that in the video above Maria Bolanos, whom we have written about, is peaking directly to the assistant director of Secure Communities , Marc Rapp.

Like in meetings past, the action included a call for task force members to resign and a walk out. After the walk out, the meeting did continue.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the site of the first S-Comm task force meeting, there was a protest at the federal detention facility, that ended in the arrests of five people, included DREAMers. All of those arrested have since been released.

Los Angeles Event Against S-Comm Today : Undocumented Youth Come Out Against Deportation Policy

9:31 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Los Angeles|Secure Communities · Comments Off

24 Aug 2011

Today at noon, PST, five undocumented youth will come out in front of ICE with a simple demand; a speedy end to the failed Secure Communities program.

From the official press release announcing the event:

As Undocumented students we are tired of Obama and his lies and we need to call him out,” said Ruben Barrera who’s brother was detained a day after Obama announced his “policy change” for a broken headlight. Ruben’s brother, Isaac was held for 2 days and was issued an ICE hold after ICE interrogated him numerous times. “It was torture, I was cold, they insulted me and they threatened to come after my family, if it wasn’t for community organizations that helped me get out I could have been deported” said Isaac Barrera.

Barrera will be one of people coming out as undocumented today in front of the Federal Building, 300 N. Los Angeles.

If you are not local to the event but would like to follow what is happening, there will be a live-stream of the event here.

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