Sanctuary and solidarity with immigrants as round-ups begin
While the Muslim ban seeks a whitening and Christianizing of the U.S. by keeping certain people out, Trump's executive order on immigration and the regulations issued by DHS pursuant to it serve the same goal by detaining and deporting millions of predominantly brown-skinned immigrants.
CCR denounced the executive order immediately, calling it "brutal" and "a betrayal of our most important political, moral, and constitutional values." And in January, together with our partners at the Immigrant Defense Project, we published a toolkit to inform the public about ways to protect against ICE's unlawful tactics. Meanwhile, protesters have taken to the streets by the thousands in response to stepped-up ICE raids and churches are creating networks of safe houses and sanctuary spaces.
Whereas Muslims are equated with terrorists by the administration and its followers, immigrants are equated with criminals. The White Nationalist House claims that ICE is only rounding up criminal aliens, but by sleigh of hand they are simply redefining most undocumented immigrants as criminals. The DHS rules call for rounding up not just those with criminal convictions (like Guadalupe Garcia, who had used a false social security number, a necessity in order to work), but those merely charged with any crime; those not yet charged with a crime (people who "have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense"); and those who "in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security" – in other words, anyone they want to.
Under these circumstances, racist policing strategies like broken windows (which intentionally targets low-level offenses like turnstile jumping) that ensnare millions in the criminal justice system become additionally a tool of Trump's ethnic cleansing regime. Sanctuary cities like New York, which refuse to ask for or pass on immigration status information to federal authorities, thus have a long way to go before they can truly claim to be safe harbor for immigrants. Immigrant communities and rights advocates have been calling on Mayor de Blasio specifically to end the NYPD's broken windows policy.
"Sanctuary cities must extend protection from all forms of state-sanctioned violence, especially those that overlap," CCR Bertha Justice Institute Fellow Stephanie Llanes wrote last month. "Radical transformation is needed and, for better or for worse, Trump’s presidency presents an opportunity to change our local and state policies—not only to reduce harm, not only to create shields, but also to create true sanctuaries."
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