Nations and organizations around
the globe observed yesterday as International Migrants Day. Twenty-two years
ago, on December 18, 1990 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted
the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of their Families, affirming the fundamental principle of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that "all human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights."
Unfortunately, this year the United
States' treatment of migrants has been dismal.
Nearly 400,000 people have been deported, often without adequate due
process. Anti-immigrant and xenophobic
laws have been passed in state legislatures of Alabama, Arizona, South
Carolina, and Utah. The US has increased
fear and isolation in our migrant communities.
Last week the U.S. Department of
Justice Civil Rights Division (DOJ), to its credit, made public the findings of
its investigation, initiated in March 2009, into civil rights violations in
Arizona by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MSCO) headed by the notorious
Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The investigation uncovered what many local advocates have
suspected for years: that Sheriff Arpaio and his subordinates engaged in a
pattern and practice of racial profiling against Latinos and also unlawful
retaliation against individuals critical of the Sheriff's policies.
Shortly after the DOJ's findings
became public, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended its agreement allowing
certain Maricopa County deputies to act as immigration agents on behalf of the
federal government, a step community leaders have demanded for years. These agreements with local law enforcement,
called 287(g) agreements, are authorized by Congress under section 287(g) of
the Immigration and Naturalization Act to allow local police to act as
immigration officers. In ending the agreement
with Maricopa, DHS acknowledges that abuse of authority will occur when law
enforcement agencies, especially those like Arpaio's, get in the immigration
business.
However, while DOJ's investigation
and DHS' suspension of the 287(g) agreement with Maricopa are steps forward, a
hugely problematic situation remains.
DHS continues to have a relationship with the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office through another program, Secure Communities, the federal deportation
dragnet program, which will continue its legacy of mass deportations and
destruction of communities.
Through Secure Communities, local
law enforcement agencies automatically provide immigration authorities
fingerprint information for every person arrested. After comparing the
fingerprint information with its own databases, ICE can either try to deport
the person or store the information in a massive database for future use.
Secure Communities is already used in 1882 jurisdictions and 44 states, even in
places where local officials and organizers have asked not to have any part in
the program and in jurisdictions with human rights records as horrific as
Maricopa County.
Think about the consequences of
such a widespread program. With Secure Communities, immigration agencies
automatically learn the identity of any non-citizen in the custody of local
police and can initiate deportation. This is the case even if the arrest was
illegal and even if the charges are dropped or never prosecuted.
Secure
Communities Through a Human Rights Lens:
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