Dear Matthew,
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has built the blueprint for Trump’s mass deportations. Gov. Baker must do everything in his power to disrupt their plans.
DHS just released memos that turn Trump’s anti-immigrant executive orders into policy. The memos empower federal immigration officers to target almost every undocumented immigrant for detention and immediate deportation, expand Trump’s deportation army by 10,000 agents and encourage local law enforcement to collaborate with federal immigration officers.1
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already terrorizing immigrant communities.2 With these new policies, DHS is unleashing and emboldening a dangerous, unaccountable deportation force. States have the power to slow them down. Speak out now to demand that Gov. Baker take bold action.
ICE is a terrifying rogue agency. For much of the last eight years, ICE agents flouted Obama administration enforcement priorities. Now the Trump administration is giving ICE sweeping permission to harass and attack all undocumented immigrants at will.
In recent days, ICE agents have arrested and detained:
- a Chicago father whose criminal record only includes traffic violations;3
- a woman at a Texas hospital undergoing treatment for a brain tumor;4
- men leaving a church’s overnight hypothermia shelter in Alexandria, Virginia;5 and
- a transgender woman who was obtaining a restraining order against a violent partner at an El Paso, Texas courthouse.6
Even though the DHS memos protect the legal status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, ICE arrested and detained DACA recipient Daniel Ramirez Medina in Seattle.7 This is not normal. This is not okay.
Fortunately, some state leaders are already standing up to protect immigrants. For example, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee have barred state agencies from cooperating with and aiding federal immigration enforcement.8 California state lawmakers are pushing an omnibus immigration bill through the legislature that would ban state resources from being used to enforce federal immigration laws.
Gov. Baker has a choice: Enable Trump’s agenda of criminalization and deportations, or resist and obstruct Trump’s racist regime at every turn. Help make sure Gov. Baker does the right thing. Add your name now.
Tell Gov. Baker: Protect immigrants in Massachusetts. Refuse to comply with DHS’ racist anti-immigrant policies. Click the link below to sign the petition.
Thank you for speaking out,
Add your name:
References:
- Tal Kopan, “Trump admin set stage for mass deportations,” CNN, Feb. 22, 2017.
- Vivian Yee, “Immigrants Hide, Fearing Capture on ‘Any Corner,’” The New York Times, Feb. 22, 2017.
- Arelis R. Hernandez, Wesley Lowery and Abigail Hauslohner, “Federal immigration raids net many without criminal records, sowing fear,” The Washington Post, Feb. 16, 2017.
- Chris Sommerfeldt, “Fed seize undocumented woman with brain tumor at hospital,” New York Daily News, Feb. 214, 2017.
- The Associated Press, “ICE agents arrest men leaving Alexandria church shelter,” Washington’s Top News, Feb. 17, 2017.
- Jonathan Blitzer, “The woman arrested by ICE in a courthouse speaks out,” The New Yorker, Feb. 23, 2017.
- Sydney Brownstone, “Detained Dreamer’s Lawyers Say Government Doctored Document to Justify False Gang Affiliation,” The Stranger, Feb. 16, 2017.
- Reid Wilson, “Wash. governor order agencies to ignore immigration requests,” The Hill, Feb. 23, 2017.
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2017 CREDO. All rights reserved.
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