Thread: Rights groups urge end to local immigration checks

Rights groups urge end to local immigration checks

The Associated Press
10:07 a.m. August 27, 2009

LOS ANGELES — Immigrant and civil rights advocates are asking the Obama administration to put an end to a federal program that lets local police and sheriff's departments enforce the country's immigration laws.
More than 500 organizations signed a letter urging Obama to end the program, which they claim has exacerbated racial profiling.

The program has been criticized by the Government Accountability Office and led to a Justice Department Investigation of the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff's office.

The government last month announced plans to revamp the program.
Chris Newman, legal programs director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the letter was mailed Wednesday.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=156257

TIME FOR ACTION, FAX, FAX, FAX OBAMA AND CONGRESS MEMBERS: URGE THEM TO KEEP 287(G)... www.congress.org

Coalition Demands Ending 287(g)



Last Updated: Thu, 08/27/2009 - 1:19pm

As prosecutors seek the death penalty for an illegal immigrant gangbanger who murdered a high school football star a day after being released from prison, hundreds of Latino rights groups demand ending the program that should have saved the teen jock’s life.

The local-federal partnership known as 287(g) calls on local police to notify federal immigration authorities whenever they arrest an illegal immigrant. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) then takes custody and begins deportation proceedings to rid the U.S. of violent criminals living in the country illegally.

Had the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department followed the plan, prep running back Jamiel Shaw would be playing college football this fall. Instead he was gunned down by a renowned violent street gang member who had been released—rather than deported—after serving time for assault with a deadly weapon.

Shaw’s parents have sued the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the county jails, of wrongful death, civil rights violations and of breaching the section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that outlines the immigration enforcement agreement between federal and local authorities.

This week a coalition of influential Latino and civil rights organizations are demanding the Obama Administration kill the local-federal agreement that could have saved Shaw and many other crime victims across the nation. They claim it gives local police a green light to commit racial profiling and civil rights abuses.

In a stern two-page letter to the president, the army of immigrant rights organizations urges terminating the 287(g) program because local law enforcement agencies nationwide are using it to target communities of color, specifically Latinos. This, in turn, has compromised public safety and done nothing to solve the immigration crisis.

The groups applaud Obama’s recent remarks acknowledging the country’s long history of African Americans and Latinos being disproportionately stopped by law enforcement but claim the 287(g) program—recently expanded by the administration—exacerbates exactly that type of racial profiling.

The letter was signed by more than 500 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Guatemalan Immigrant Movement, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras and La Raza Centro Legal. Many of the groups will host vigils, marches and other protests this month to condemn and demand an end to 287(g).

www.judicialwatch.org

More than 500 so-called immigrants' rights organizations? We can probably count citizen rights organizations and still have a few toes left over. What the crap is going on in this country?
Americans have always led the world in generosity toward others, and now these a-holes are demanding more! How dare they?

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4477--0-0.html

These so-called Immigrant Rights Organizations claim that 287-G induces racial profiling by law-enforcement.

But it seems to me that, when illegal alien gang members target and murder Black Americans just because they are black, this is the most blatant, extreme example of racial profiling imaginable. This is one of the reasons why we need 287-G.

Besides, law-enforcement doesn't engage in racial profiling. They must first cite and stop a person on "reasonable suspicion", based on some kind of infraction of the law that this person committed. Then law-enforcement will utilize 287-G.

Their Arguements are bull crap. All they have is the RACE CARD to play now and that is old and moldy, and no longer works...

287g targets criminal ILLEGAL ALIENS and thats it.

illegal immigration is longer about immigration and the rule of law but about Hispanic politics!

In a stern two-page letter to the president, the army of immigrant rights organizations urges terminating the 287(g) program because local law enforcement agencies nationwide are using it to target communities of color, specifically Latinos. This, in turn, has compromised public safety and done nothing to solve the immigration crisis.

OOoooo they sent a "stern" letter, bet that'll scare Obama, huh?

I couldn't help but notice that these groups all fall under ONE special interest group and are demanding that the law (287(g) not be enforced because they don't like it? Nothing in 287(g) tells law enforcement target hispanics, like these nutjobs want us to think. It's MEANT to catch those who are in the US ILLEGALLY and is a GREAT program.

WE citizens want our laws enforced and there are way more than 500 of us calling, faxing and emailing Obama and Congress. WE will continue to do so.

In a stern two-page letter to the president, the army of immigrant rights organizations urges terminating the 287(g) program because local law enforcement agencies nationwide are using it to target communities of color, specifically Latinos. This, in turn, has compromised public safety and done nothing to solve the immigration crisis.

OOoooo they sent a "stern" letter, bet that'll scare Obama, huh?

I couldn't help but notice that these groups all fall under ONE special interest group and are demanding that the law (287(g) not be enforced because they don't like it? Nothing in 287(g) tells law enforcement target hispanics, like these nutjobs want us to think. It's MEANT to catch those who are in the US ILLEGALLY and is a GREAT program.

WE citizens want our laws enforced and there are way more than 500 of us calling, faxing and emailing Obama and Congress. WE will continue to do so.