Can We Fight ICE?
Dear Leading Ladies,
Mirian Albert, senior attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR).
Laura Rotolo, director for field initiatives with the American Civil LIberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts.
Elsabel Rincon, founder of the Welcome Immigrant Network (WIN).
These three inspiring and dedicated advocates are on the front lines every day, protecting the women, men, and children whose rights are being trampled as they are stopped, searched, separated from their families, detained, and deported.
Last Wednesday, at The Cabot in Beverly, they offered insights and advice on how we all can take action against these flagrant acts of crimes against humanity,
Wisdom from Mirian Albert
Albert, one of the first lawyers to arrive on Martha’s Vineyard when the immigrants were sent by Governor DeSantis of Texas, began the discussion by saying that rights are real only when people know them and can exercise them. She also emphasized that the term illegal is itself both dehumanizing and inaccurate. The words undocumented or non-citizen are more accurate. She encouraged the audience to adopt that language.
She pointed to a surge in immigration enforcement, accompanied by an alarming increase in violence. The Constitution guarantees certain rights to everyone living in the United States, she explained, whether they are citizens or not. Among them is the right to refuse a search of your home or business without a judicial warrant. To assess the legitimacy of a warrant, she advises everyone to verify that it is on court letterhead with a judge’s signature and correct date, as well as the individual’s accurate name and address. These small details can be important, Albert emphasized. Unfortunately, however, these details can also be ignored.
Albert offered harrowing examples. A family of five driving to church was stopped two blocks from home by ICE officers in an unmarked vehicle. The officers approached the car, and gave no identification or explanation before breaking the window and pulling the husband out, creating a traumatizing situation for the three children. Lawyers for Civil Rights is now representing the children to hold ICE accountable for unlawful behavior.
In another case, a landscaper driving a work truck in East Boston was stopped at a light by ICE. He told the officers that he was in the United States with protected status (TPS). The ICE officer told him that if he wasn’t born here he had no rights. The landscaper was detained but eventually released because of pressure from a citizen’s group in East Boston. A stark reminder that community action can work.
From Laura Rotolo
Rotolo continued the discussion by reminding the audience that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn’t even exist until after 9/11 when it was created to prevent future terrorist attacks. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) falls under DHS and is funded with $170 billion for immigration enforcement—more than the military budgets of most countries and of all other U.S. federal law enforcement agencies combined.
In addition, ICE seeks the support of cities, counties and states to act as force multipliers in their “deport now, ask questions later” approach. Using what are called 287(g) agreements, they deputize local police officers (and pay bonuses) to help reach the administration’s goal of 3,000 arrests per day. Community groups in places like Wells, Maine, have succeeded in urging their local police departments to withdraw from such 287(g) agreements. Meanwhile, ICE continues to recruit extensively among those with the same vision about immigrants, lowering their hiring standards while offering high salaries, and bonuses for meeting arrest goals.
From Elsabel Rincon
Rincon described the lives of clients at Welcome Immigrant Network (WIN). “They grapple every day with the thought, is this the day I will be detained?” Fear spreads in the community, and families become afraid to send their children to school, keep doctors’ appointments, or even go to work.
She told the story of a 16-year-old boy who called to report that his father was detained and the family didn’t know where he was. He was located after someone posted on social media that an ICE truck had been seen on the man’s route to work. The local chief of police, mayor, and other community leaders became involved and were able to apply enough pressure to have him released.
Rincon shared another story, this one about a husband and father who was his child’s main caregiver. He was detained while driving his wife to work. With no one to care for their daughter and not enough money for child care, the mother had to quit her job.
Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times
Q and A Takeaways
The key takeaways from the question and answer session that followed the discussion were that most local political leaders have been supportive of measures to support immigrant rights when asked. We need to ask for our elected officials to be vocal with their support, including their disapproval of ICE officers wearing masks during arrests.
However, the truth is that local police have their hands tied when it comes to the actions of ICE because the federal officers have jurisdiction. Local officers can not intervene. Nonetheless, some towns and states, including Massachusetts, are trying to pass legislation that prohibits law enforcers from hiding their identities.
Panelists advised the audience to continue to rally, write their legislators, and encourage others to speak out against 287(g) agreements in their towns. (learn more here).
These agreements would allow state and local agencies to act as immigration enforcement agents, thus extending the reach of the present administration’s ICE program.
On a hopeful note, a delightful third grader in the audience asked one of the most salient questions of the evening: “My parents always say knowledge is important. Now I have more knowledge, but what can I do?” Laura Rotolo struck a nerve when she replied: “You’re right. Knowledge is important. Now share what you know. And be kind to friends who are immigrants.”
And the final guidance to the adults in the audience? Fighting the actions of ICE and the current administration is going to take more than a lawsuit. It will take coalitions and all-of-us-out-on-the-street, phone calls and letters to local, state, and federal leaders.
It will also take our humanity to reach out to support friends, family, employees, and colleagues who are threatened, challenged, and traumatized by the illegal and inhumane treatment at the hands of ICE and other immigration authorities.
Thank you to our brave and dedicated panelists, to our wonderful moderator, Trish Moore, president of the Essex County Women’s Fund, and to our partners at The Cabot.
To learn more about our panelist’s work, visit:
https://lawyersforcivilrights.org/
https://www.welcomeimmigrantnetwork.org/
All the Best,
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org