Immobility on immigration draws reaction in cities nationwide
Accustomed to bad news, the immigrant community has welcomed as a breath of fresh air (and with no little amazement) some positive developments that occurred in recent weeks.
In a movement that could have national implications, a growing number of cities and counties have begun to take measures to protect immigrants from unjustifiable deportations and strengthen public safety by reestablishing their battered trust in the police.
Miami, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York are some of the 17 cities that have reviewed their cooperation with the hated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE). New counties in Oregon followed their example this month.
In other words — and this is important — it is not only the immigrants and their defenders who are tired of Congress’ immobility and the cruel policy of mass deportations that has characterized the Obama administration.
Baltimore is the latest city to refuse to blindly obey the federal program ironically called Secure Communities, established in 2009. Under this program, ICE asks local authorities to detain some immigrants up to 48 hours to investigate their legal situation.
The program, supposedly created with the objective of detaining and deporting “the worst of the worst” criminal immigrants, has, in practice, persecuted and deported thousands of persons guilty of misdemeanors such as traffic violations.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) last Friday announced that Baltimore will cooperate with ICE only if the immigrant in question has been charged or sentenced for a serious crime. The governor took that step after an investigation by The Baltimore Sun confirmed something that activists and immigrants already knew: more than 40 percent of those deported from Maryland had no criminal record.
“We will focus our efforts on complying with ICE detainers when there is an actual threat to the public’s safety,” O’Malley said.
Two days earlier, the Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, had signed an executive order that in practice terminated his city’s cooperation with ICE.
Philadelphia not only will not detain immigrants arrested for misdemeanors or nonviolent crimes, who could be released while awaiting trial, but also will not inform ICE whenever it releases them, unless the detainee has been indicted of a violent crime and ICE secures a subpoena.
Nutter said in a prepared statement that the federal program was “overly aggressive” and “there has been a negative impact on some immigrants who will not report crimes to the police, don’t want to be witnesses, and suffer accordingly.”
Nutter’s words are nothing new to the immigrants and the activists who have been warning about Secure Communities’ negative effects ever since the program began. The program weakens the immigrant community’s trust in the local authorities and fosters racial discrimination, the breakup of families, and even the deportation of American citizens.
The resistance movement to ICE’s exigencies is expected to extend to other cities and counties, which is both good news and an important change that will allow greater justice in the treatment of undocumented persons.
Make no mistake, however. While mass deportations continue and Congress does not awaken from its insulting slumber, no change will be sufficient.
