Senate Committee is Expected to Finish by Week’s End

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2013 – CAMBIO, the Campaign for an Accountable, Moral, and Balanced Immigration Overhaul, released a  statement this afternoon as the Senate Judiciary Committee continues  to work through amendments to S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, this week:

Laura Murphy, Director of the Washington Legislative Office, American Civil Liberties Union
“Today’s markup session was proof positive that the tide is turning away from anti-immigrant sentiment and toward a future where we recognize the contributions of all who live in this great nation.  We remain optimistic that the spirit of compromise shown by the ‘Gang of Eight’ will hold strong and that the bill’s civil liberties protections will be strengthened in markup the rest of the week.”

Margaret Huang, Executive Director, Rights Working Group
“We are pleased that S. 744 includes language prohibiting racial profiling, because there have been numerous allegations of racial and religious profiling raised in the context of immigration enforcement and border security.  Today, CAMBIO was happy to see Grassley Amendment 49 defeated as it would have allowed for profiling on the basis of national origin.  Law enforcement agencies and human rights advocates agree that racial profiling is an ineffective tool, and Senator Grassley’s amendment would have allowed this profiling to take place.  We hope that the Judiciary Committee members will continue to oppose amendments that would allow profiling, including Senator Graham’s Amendment 3 which would allow the Department of Homeland Security to discriminate against aspiring citizens based on national origin.  We expect that vote later tonight and we call on all Senators to vote against it.”

Paromita Shah, Associate Director of the National Immigration Project, National Lawyers Guild
“We commend the Senate Judiciary Committee for defeating many pernicious amendments today that criminalize immigrants and attack fundamental due process protections.  But the Committee, by a near unanimous vote, also passed an expansion of aggravated felony offenses – charges that are often neither aggravated nor felonies but keep individuals from having their cases considered and heard before a judge.  This rolls back critical due process safeguards and is contradictory to fundamental American values.  We cannot and will not support hard line proposals that take away discretion and limit an individual’s ability to pursue the pathway to citizenship.  It is critical that the Committee and the full Senate protect due process in the immigration bill as it is the cornerstone of the American justice system.”

Andrea Black, Executive Director, Detention Watch Network
“CAMBIO applauds the Senate Judiciary Committee for standing up for the rights of immigrants held in jails across the United States.  Committee members voted against attempts by Senators Grassley and Sessions to strip critical provisions of the bill that will reduce the suffering of immigrants in detention and lower costs to taxpayers.  CAMBIO further commends Senator Blumenthal for his successful effort to limit the use of solitary confinement in detention.”

CAMBIO is a diverse group of organizations advocating for laws and policies that create a fair system for immigrants to become citizens; bans indefinite detention; guarantees due process for everyone in the United States; makes enforcement systems accountable; protects civil and human rights; encourages a better border to protect the quality of life in the borderlands, prevents the abuse of vulnerable Americans; and keeps families together.  CAMBIO’s members include American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU Regional Center for Border Rights, the Border Network for Human Rights, Detention Watch Network, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Guestworker Alliance, the National Immigration Law Center, Rights Working Group, Southern Border Communities Coalition, Immigrant Justice Network, and Northern Borders Coalition.

More information about CAMBIO can be found on the web at www.CAMBIO-US.org and on Twitter @CAMBIOtoday.

CONTACT:Ravi Ragbir (English) 917.566.4816 Rev. Fabian Arias 646.244.5404 (Spanish) or Juan Carlos Ruiz (English/Spanish) 347.369.1959

By Lindsay Marshall. Reposted from azcentral.com

Suicides are among the most intensely personal and traumatic events most of us can imagine.

It is impossible to get into the mind of someone who chooses to take his or her own life and understand what led to that decision.

Suicides leave everyone asking questions with very few answers. And when a suicide takes place in a more public arena, these questions become broader and more urgent for us all.

Earlier this month, in the space of just a few days, two people in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement separately took their own lives by hanging themselves.

Elsa Guadalupe-Gonzales, 24, and Jorge Garcia-Mejia, 40, were detained at Arizona’s remote Eloy Detention Center, run by Corrections Corporation of America, and were in legal proceedings relating to their right to stay lawfully in the United States.

Both were from Guatemala and approaching their 40th day in detention.

The Florence Project had not met with Guadalupe-Gonzalez but was scheduled to meet with Garcia-Mejia, on the day he took his life, to screen him for legal relief and orient him to the Immigration Court process.

While it’s intrusive to try to create a narrative around the deaths of these two people, suicides in detention can symbolically force us to look at the larger issues around them because they both were in federal custody as a part of our immigration-enforcement practices.

If we can’t figure out why they may have taken their own lives, we at least have a moral obligation to ask what treatment and conditions may have made their situations worse.

The dark truth is that I am surprised more men and women don’t take their lives in immigration detention.

Whether inside the Eloy Detention Center or in any of the other hundreds of prisons, county jails and detention facilities that ICE uses to detain immigrants around the country, there are human beings who are suffering every day.

They are locked up and separated from their families, and they don’t know when their time in detention will end. They are facing deportation, often to a place where they have been victimized, abused, persecuted or tortured and, if they are longer-term residents in the United States, they face permanent exile from their families and lives in this country.

None has the right to legal counsel, despite facing complex legal proceedings. They have very little power to advocate for their interests.

It is long past the time when we should collectively examine the immigration detention system in the United States and ask whether it is worth the cost.

There are incredibly persuasive arguments that the detention system is not worth the financial cost to taxpayers, but these deaths underscore that we must also recognize the human cost.

Not only are these two suicides devastating for the victims and their families, they impact the other immigrants locked inside, the officers who work in the detention centers, the staffs of organizations like the Florence Project who are trying to help them, and the medical responders who come to their aid.

If we don’t have answers, let’s at least ask the question of whether this is necessary and whether it reflects the kind of country we want to be.

Lindsay Marshall is executive director of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project and a member of the national Detention Watch Network.

]]> http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/its-time-to-look-at-human-cost-of-immigration-system/feed/ 0 carlygperez9 472977_589437774414410_131235358_o http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/now-is-the-time-to-act-speak-up-about-immigration-detention-call-senate-judiciary-committee-today/ http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/now-is-the-time-to-act-speak-up-about-immigration-detention-call-senate-judiciary-committee-today/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 15:28:36 +0000 Will Coley http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/?p=6985 ]]> The immigration debate has been evolving rapidly. The latest information is that the Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss detention, criminalization and interior enforcement provisions in the bill on Monday May 20th.

We encourage you to make calls TODAY and TOMORROW to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge them to oppose the amendments that would further harm immigrants in detention and support amendments that would further critical detention reforms.

We are particularly concerned about Grassley Amendment 53 which would dramatically expand immigration detention during removal proceedings and indefinitely afterwards for those who cannot be removed as well as severely limit the use of alternatives to detention and bond hearings. Passage of this amendment would be a huge setback to our collective efforts to dramatically reduce detention.

Please make calls TODAY and TOMORROW. They do make an impact!! Please also share this action alert widely with your networks and allies.

Thank you.

NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!!

THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WILL CONSIDER DETENTION RELATED AMENDMENTS TO THE IMMIGRATION BILL S. 744

MONDAY May 20th

Call Senators from the Judiciary Committee TODAY and TOMORROW

and ask them to:

OPPOSE DETRIMENTAL DETENTION AMENDMENTS

 “Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I am calling to strongly urge Senator [NAME OF SENATOR] to OPPOSE Senator Grassley’s amendments 41, 47, 51 and 53 and Senator Sessions’ amendment 12. These amendments are too extreme and out-of-step with the bipartisan spirit of S.744.

SUPPORT FAVORABLE DETENTION AMENDMENTS

“I further strongly urge Senator [NAME OF SENATOR] to SUPPORT Senator Coons’ amendment 6 and Senator Blumenthal’s amendment 2.  These amendments are easy fixes that address critical issues needed to reform the immigration detention system.”

[SEE LIST OF SENATORS AND PHONE NUMBERS BELOW]

DETRIMENTAL DETENTION AMENDMENTS

Grassley 41: Issue:  This amendment strikes provision in bill that codifies the Office of Legal Access Programs and expands Legal Orientation Programs.

Grassley 47: Issue:  This amendment strikes Section 3717, which provides for custody hearings for all detained immigrants and increases fairness of custody review and stipulated orders of removal procedures.

Grassley 51: This amendment strikes Section 3715, which directs DHS to create a secure alternatives program in every field office (including contracting with CBOs) and includes case management services. Section 3715 also requires DHS to make individualized assessments to determine level of supervision and to review the level of supervision monthly. It also permits secure alternatives to constitute custody in certain cases.

Grassley 53: Issue:  This amendment expands immigration detention during removal proceedings and indefinitely afterwards for those who cannot be removed. Severely limits use of alternatives to detention and bond hearings.

Sessions 12: Issue:  This amendment mandates bond levels of no less than $5,000 for nationals of non-contiguous countries, who have not been admitted or paroled, and who are apprehended within 100 miles of the border or present a flight risk as determined by ICE. 

FAVORABLE DETENTION AMENDMENTS

Coons 6: Issue:  This amendment requires interoperability of ICE, CIS, CBP, and EOIR databases containing information on all detainees. Specifies categories of information that must be maintained in the database of each agency and establishes regular reporting requirements to Congress.  Makes reports available to public without FOIA request.

Blumenthal 2: Issue:  This amendment restricts the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention and outlines guidelines and oversight for its use.

Contact the Senators below who are on the Judiciary Committee

Senator Patrick Leahy (VT):
@SenatorLeahy
DC: (202) 224-4242
Email: https://www.leahy.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA):
@SenFeinstein
DC: (202) 224-3841
Email: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Senator Charles Schumer (NY):
@ChuckSchumer
DC: (202) 224-6542
Email: https://www.schumer.senate.gov/Contact/contact_chuck.cfm

Senator Dick Durbin (IL):
@SenatorDurbin
DC: (202) 224-2152
Email: http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/footer-contact?p=contact

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI): 
@SenWhitehouse
DC: 202-224-2921
Email: http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/contact

Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN): 
@amyklobuchar
DC: (202) 224-3244
Email: http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm?contactForm=emailamy&submit=Go

Senator Al Franken (MN): 
@alfranken
DC: (202) 224-5641
Email: http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=email_al

Senator Christopher A. Coons (DE): 
@ChrisCoons
DC: (202) 224-5042
Email: http://www.coons.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT): 
@SenBlumenthal
DC: (202) 224-2823
Email: https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/contact/#

Senator Mazie K. Hirono (HI): 
@maziehirono
DC: (202) 224-6361
Email: http://www.hirono.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Senator Orrin Hatch (UT): 
@OrrinHatch
DC: (202) 224-5251
Email: http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-orrin

Senator Lindsey Graham (SC): 
@LindseyGrahamSC
DC: (202) 224-5972
http://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGraham

Senator John Cornyn (TX): 
@JohnCornyn
DC: (202) 224-2934
Email: http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

Senator Mike Lee (UT): 
@SenMikeLee
DC: (202) 224-5444
Email: http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Senator Jeff Flake (AZ): 
@JeffFlake
DC: (202) 224-4521
Email: http://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff

This is a weekly vigil in New York City where we walk around the federal immigration building seven times, praying in silence for the right to remain with our families and communities.

On Thursday May 16 we will be in the Hart Senate Building in Washington, DC to pray, witness and to let them know that we are present as faith leaders, congregants, citizens and immigrants while the Judiciary Committee considers our fate. We will share and say a unity prayer during the walk to tear down the walls of injustice that separate us from a fair and humane immigration policy.

WHERE: Lutheran Church of the Reformation – 11:00am

: 212 East Capitol Street, Washington DC, 11:00 — gathering and logistics

: Hart Senate Building – 12:00 pm Jericho Walk

WHEN: Thursday May 16^th 2013

JOIN US AS WE HEED THE CALL TO WELCOME THE STRANGER, TO PURSUE JUSTICE, AND TO EXPRESS OUR LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR ALL WHO LIVE AMONGST US.

If you cannot join us physically,

Pray with us as we walk from 12:00 – 1:30

GIVE US ALL THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN JUSTICE AND IN TRUTH

Endorsers: Casa de Maryland, Center for Community Change, Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Detention Watch Network. Building the World House

For more information contact: Ravi Ragbir at ravi@newsanctuarynyc.org or 347-651-0001.

Washington, D.C. – The markup of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act is expected to address amendments 41, 47, 51 and 53 put forth by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Thursday, May 16. Detention Watch Network (DWN) urges members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to strike down these draconian amendments that further destroy American values of fairness and due process.

“The Grassley amendments would essentially strip any positive detention provisions that are included in the current bill and instead expand inhumane policies like indefinite detention,” said Andrea Black, Executive Director of DWN. “The introduction of these amendments by Senator Grassley is a direct affront to years of advocacy to reform the immigration detention system, which operates with an arbitrary mandate of who should be detained and little oversight.”

While the bill is a far cry from true reform of the immigration system, DWN is encouraged to see that it would require Department of Homeland Security to consider the use of alternatives to detention for a broader category of immigrants, including those that are denied due process under mandatory detention. Currently, 70 percent of immigrants are in detention due to mandatory detention, which means that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor any judge has the power to release them to their families and communities.

Just two weeks ago, two Guatemalan nationals committed suicide within a few days of each other at the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) run Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. The facility operates under outdated detention condition guidelines and has neglected to fully address over nine deaths that have occurred there since 2004. While the incident at Eloy is tragic, the situation there is exemplary of rampant conditions and staffing issues at detention centers across the country.

“The detention provisions currently outlined in the bill would limit the use of solitary confinement, provide access to legal information for all people in detention, and require more oversight of facilities, including those that are run by private prison companies like CCA” said Black. “Senator Grassley wants to thwart these potentially lifesaving reform efforts.”

For DWN’s statement on the bill please click here.

Petition Statement: The Border Patrol uses our tax money to incarcerate immigrants in private prisons on charges that weren’t considered crimes ten years ago. We call on our Senators and Representatives to deny funding to the private prison industry.

Petition Background:

Despite immigration reform efforts, private prison industry lobbyists have support in Congress for over $2 billion a year for massive incarceration of immigrants in private prisons.
Immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol serve an average sentence of 360 days in a private prison for behaviors that weren’t considered crimes ten years ago.
This is not o.k. Congress should refuse to finance private prisons with immigrant incarcerations.

Immigration Detention: Rev. John Guttermann Lives out Faith Through

‘Conversations with Friends’

Interview by Luke Telander, Program Associate for Outreach at LIRS with Rev. John Guttermann, Covenant Minister at United Church in Christ in New Brighton, Lead at Conversations with Friends, and Advocacy Lead for the Interfaith Coalition on Immigration, MN.

Leaders like Rev. John Guttermann of the United Church in Christ in New Brighton, MN are mobilizing volunteers to visit and give hope to detained immigrants who often have nowhere else to turn for solace.  I was lucky enough to talk with him about his life and work.  Here are his thoughts: 

Luke Telander (LT): What experience first drove you to get involved with detention visitation? 

Rev. John Guttermann (JG): In 2006, both of my parents died while I was serving in a difficult interim pastorate. I eventually resigned from my position and began what I thought would be three month voluntary sabbatical.  I took classes (including an anti-racism class), read, rested, enjoyed being home, began attending a variety of meetings and events related to ‘social justice,’ and eventually signed up for a social justice trip to Chiapas, the southern most state of Mexico, with a group from the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.  It was the first time I had traveled to a 2/3rd world country.  I worked hard to prepare, read all that was required and more.  While there we met with justice advocates and organizers; met with Zapatista communities; visited the village of Acteal where right-wing paramilitaries murdered 45 men, women, and children; listened, discussed, and learned.  Above all I heard the people we met with telling me that my response to their stories should not be an attempt to return to help them, but required that I find a way to serve and share their stories within my own community. 

Soon after returning home I received a notice of an immigrant rights march in Minneapolis.  Not quite knowing what it was, I participated, and in doing so discovered that the people the I met with in Chiapas were here: until that march, I had not seen or paid attention to the immigrants among us.

Soon I met with four other United Church of Christ pastors around one of their dining room tables.  We began learning about immigrant detention and rather naively said, “We should visit them,” only to learn that outside of their attorneys, immigrant detainees had no right to be visited, and our clergy collars did not grant us the privilege of being a visitor to immigrant detainees.  My response was to become the lead person working to gain that permission and to begin a visitation program.

LT: How does your work advocating for immigrant rights reflect your religious beliefs? 

JG: I read, listen to, and hear Biblical narratives with a different eyes and ears from what I used to.  The Levitical text, ”treat the aliens among you as the citizen”, the Matthean text “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” the birth narratives as migration stories  – all texts and themes that were once peripheral to me have become core texts that now frame my faith stance in the world.  For me, Scripture now has a harder, more demanding edge – it evokes more passion and demands that I respond with more commitment.

LT: What is the number one misconception about immigration detention in America today? 

JG: I do not think enough people are aware of detention for there to be any kind of general misconception.  For those who are aware, and who are not like me in their involvement, it is the belief that incarceration of immigrants of protects us from criminals.  I use ‘incarceration’ intentionally because ‘detention’ is too benign a word for the experience of immigrants held by ICE.

LT: You work with the Interfaith Immigration Coalition in Minneapolis.  How has working with people from diverse backgrounds and faiths strengthened your work?

JG: I think interfaith work strengthens the integrity of all faith work.  In the world’s (not just the United States’) mosaic of faith cultures, I question the validity of uni-faith work.   Interfaith work provides checks and balances to arrogance and helps keep our efforts honest.  It is a reminder that we are not all the same and do not need to be the same to be faithful and do what is faithful by the lights of our different traditions.  And we are all here together.  It teaches that we can have faithful boundaries and mutual respect through shared service.  But it is hard – I do not do it especially well, I am lucky in that there are multiple existing interfaith networks in my area.  I just keep showing up and trying.

LT: How have you seen visitation programs make a difference in the lives of detainees?

JG: That has been difficult to assess.  We do a very small thing – meet and offer ourselves for compassionate conversation.  We are seldom able to follow or do multiple meetings with the same individual throughout their incarceration.  I think making a difference means many different things: we offer a safe place for immigrant detainees to declare their frustrations and complaints, though we are unable to do anything about those frustrations and complaints.  I think the safe space for doing that makes a difference.  We are sometimes asked “why are you here?’ or “why are you doing this?” and our simple response is that we care and want them to know they are not alone.  And after a visit it is often those who asked “why” who express their appreciation and request that we come back.

LT: How can individuals and congregations of all faiths get involved in visitation programs?

JG:

1. As a volunteer willing to commit to be trained, back ground checked, and be a visitor for at least 6 months.
2. By offering prayer for the detained immigrants as a routine part of their worship.
3. By offering prayer for those who are visiting.
4. By praying for the corrections officers and ICE officers.
5. By bringing programs about immigration and our detention –deportation system to their faith nand community organizations.
6. By connecting with those who are advocating for immigration reform.
7. By donating to organizations that are supporting immigrants and the campaign for reform.

LT: What is the number one thing about our detention system that you would like changed through the current immigration reform efforts?

JG: That each immigrant person being considered for detention should receive an independent hearing before an impartial judge who has the power to make an independent assessment of the immigrant and their situation and has access to resources that support alternatives to detention.

LT: What gives you the most hope for the possibility of real reform of our immigration detention system?

JG: The fact that there is finally a bipartisan conversation about immigration reform in the congress is a hope.  That the detention system is so resource intensive, so draining of money and energy, and so wasteful and hurtful of people is well documented, and is leading many across the political spectrum to call for change is also a hope.

I have to add that I think people of faith are “more there” on this issue than they were in 2010 when I first became a part of the effort to drive our nation to reform our immigration system.   But I am discouraged because detention system reform is still a less well known subset of the immigration reform campaign and the mantra of “security” seems to dominate the discussion among the general public both inside and outside of faith communities.