Rights groups tell ICE to stop raids for census
By Jacob Simas
New America Media
Mar 12, 2010
OAKLAND, Calif. –
Immigrant rights advocates have sent a letter to President Barack Obama
and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano
asking them to immediately suspend all immigration enforcement
activities through the end of the year in order to decrease fear within
immigrant communities and encourage their participation in the 2010
Census.
Questionnaires for the
2010 Census are due to arrive in the mailbox of every U.S. household
between now and April 1.
“We are genuinely
concerned that the climate of fear will seriously impact the census form
return rate of immigrant households -- and if people do not return the
form, they will be reluctant to open the door to a follow-up visit from
a census worker," said Catherine Tactaquin, director of National Network
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR). "We really need the leadership
of the administration right now to make a difference in the success of
the census among our diverse immigrant populations."
The letter, which was
signed by more than 200 organizations nationwide, calls for the
suspension of more than a dozen specific enforcement activities operated
through DHS, including immigration raids on homes and workplaces.
ICE Responds
ICE spokesperson Lori
Haley told NAM she was unaware of the immigrant advocates’ letter. In a
prepared statement, the agency said that ICE “fully supports an accurate
count of the U.S. population,” and would prioritize enforcing laws “on
those dangerous criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to the
security of our communities, not sweeps or raids to target undocumented
immigrants indiscriminately.”
The problem, according to
Arnoldo Garcia, a program director at NNIRR in Oakland, is that ICE
raids result in only 2 percent of the roughly 500,000 deportations of
immigrants that occur each year in the United States. “It would not be
enough for Napolitano or congress to just say, ‘Okay, let’s suspend
raids.’ That would be a gross injustice,” he said.
Even if ICE were to
de-emphasize immigration raids, said Garcia, the majority of people
being picked up and deported are a result of less visible strategies,
like those arising from 287(g) agreements.
Such agreements allow
local police and county sheriff departments to be trained by ICE in
identifying potential “criminal aliens.” The result, said Garcia, is an
increase in deportations and a growing mistrust of government and
law-enforcement agencies within immigrant communities, including among
legal permanent residents.
“Most people don’t realize
that law enforcement is also deporting legal residents on criminal
charges,” he said. “If you’re not a U.S. citizen, even if you are a
legal permanent resident, you can still be subjected to deportation.”
Garcia says the
organizations are simply asking the Obama administration and DHS to
follow historical precedent. According to the letter, the federal
government eased immigration enforcement activities during at least the
last two decennial census campaigns.
Historical Precedent
The letter references a
quote from Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, a Democrat from Texas, who told Fox
News last year that when he was working for the Border Patrol during the
lead-up to the 1990 census, he received orders to suspend some
enforcement efforts.
There is other
documentation that would suggest that the INS changed some of its
operations during the 1990 census. For example, the INS commissioner
sent a fax on Feb. 15, 1990 to all field offices, outlining guidelines
for enforcement operations conducted while the census was being carried
out, with the intention of deterring INS employees from “engaging in any
conduct that is intended to inhibit or deter any person or group of
persons from the fullest possible participation in the upcoming 1990
Census.”
The document goes on to
state:
In keeping with an
agreement between the Service and the Bureau of the Census, news
releases or public announcements made by the Service with regard to
Service enforcement activities will be temporarily discontinued during
the period starting February 11, 1990 and ending July 31, 1990.
It is unclear from the
commissioner’s fax whether the INS actually suspended activities, or
simply stopped reporting them to the public.
Doris Meissner, who was
head of INS during the 2000 Census, told the Orange County Register in
January that she did in fact order suspension of “routine operations and
enforcement activities” during the two weeks leading up to Census day,
while allowing more serious enforcement involving criminal activities to
continue unabated.
However, Meissner said
that the likelihood of the Obama administration allowing even that to
happen again is slim, considering how much the political landscape has
changed since 2000.
“We definitely went
further than what I’m hearing from this administration thus far,” she
told the Register. “I think politically they feel more vulnerable and
they may even believe that by going any further they would send signals
that would embolden serious criminals and possibly terrorists.”
Census Bureau Promises
Hands-Off Approach to Immigration
Regardless of what has
occurred in the past, Census Bureau spokesperson Sonny Le says the
bureau is taking a hands-off approach to the question of immigration
enforcement in 2010. “We don’t request or interfere with other
departments,” said Le. “Any decisions are going to have to come from
Congress or the president.”
Nevertheless, NNIRR is
optimistic that the Obama administration will recognize that the
long-term benefits of an enforcement suspension outweigh any short-term
political backlash.
“Having an accurate count
of the immigrant population is not only good for immigrants,” said
Garcia. “There has been a demographic revolution in this country over
the last 10 years, and in those communities where there has been a big
demographic change, if immigrants are undercounted, the whole community
will be shooting itself in the foot.”
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