By Alliance President Terry Gips
As we’ve sadly witnessed in Minnesota and across America, masked and unidentified ICE and other federal agents have engaged in questionable, often illegal actions, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
These include pulling up and throwing people into unmarked vans, lurking outside of schools and congregations, and grabbing people at work, when they walk outside or even when following the law by attending their required legal immigration hearings. ICE officers frequently lie to lure people, and many law-abiding US citizens have been harassed or detained, usually based on their appearances, such as Somalis.
The result is widespread fear, abuse and even murder, as Renee Nicole Good experienced. This threatens our collective safety. CNN highlighted public opinion polls (all taken before the murder of Renee Good) showing a majority of Americans disapprove of ICE tactics:
- Voters disapproved 57% to 39% on how ICE was enforcing immigration laws (July Quinnipiac University Poll)
- 53% say ICE’s operations are “too tough” (October CBS News-YouGov poll)
- 54% say ICE has “gone too far” in enforcing immigration laws (June Marist College poll)
- In each case, about 6 in 10 independents sided against ICE
We must stop these threatening secret police tactics and respect the rule of law. At the very least, we need to:
- Prohibit any law enforcement agents in your state from obscuring their identities
- Limit collaboration with federal immigration enforcement that violates civil rights
- Establish “safe community places,” in state, city, or county facilities, where access to non-public areas requires a judicial warrant
- Create a hotline and online portal for the public to report harms from federal deployments or immigration enforcement
Please join the Alliance in sending this letter from the National Immigration Law Center asking your state legislators to address these challenges and create safe communities.