VivirLatino

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