Last year we had a major victory along with the NY State Working Group against Deportations keeping the misleadingly named “Secure Communities” program out of New York. In June 2011 Governor Cuomo suspended the "Secure Communities" (S-COMM) program in New York City and State while championing the basic human right to family unity.
Since Families for Freedom's inception we have been organizing against ICE access programs believing that criminal law enforcement agencies should not be turned into frontline enforcers of civil immigration laws. We have continually organized against racial profiling and police tactics like Stop & Frisk and highlighted the devastating affects that they have on immigrant communities of color as ICE & law enforcement work more closely together. Shortly after Cuomo's suspension of Secure Communities, President Obama announced in August 2011, that the program will be mandatory come 2013. We will continue to organize so that it doesnt enter NY and support nationwide efforts to end this destructive program.
The implementation of Secure Communities would have meant that the over 3 million immigrants in NYC including; green-card holders, undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers and any non-citizens would have been at an even greater risk for deportation. To live under constant surveillance, blatant racial profiling, media fear mongering and the ever present threat of deportation amounts to second class citizenship for all non citizens, documented or not. By putting a stop to Secure Communities we helped stop the conveyor belt into deportation proceedings via the criminal justice system. We collaborated with The NY State Working Group against Deportation, a unique coalition of domestic violence, immigrant rights,family services, labor, faith-based, civil rights, and community-based organization to achieve this victory. Because of our expertise in organizing at the intersection of the criminal and immigration systems, FFF's staff and member leaders were at the forefront of developing campaign talking points, strategies and tactics and will continue to do this work.
Throughout 2011, we also continued to press for the passage of the Child Citizen Protection Act which would help people remain in the U.S. to stay with their Citizen children. We held a rally at ICE headquarters at 26 Federal Plaza on Father's day featuring the voices of youth advocating for the CCPA who's fathers had already been deported or who faced deportation. The Child Citizen Protection Act (H.R. 182) will change the lives of thousands of American children by providing immigration judges with the discretion to consider the best interests of U.S. citizen children before ordering his or her parent deported. Every year, more than 100,000 non-citizen parents are deported and torn away from their families even when a judge thinks they deserve to stay in the U.S. to help raise and support those families. Mandatory deportation has heart-breaking effects on American children who are either separated from their parents or forced to start over in a country that is not their own. The Child Citizen Protection Act is an opportunity for us to show that we truly value families and that the health, safety and well-being of our nation’s children are important to us. Check out CCPA resources on our website.
We celebrated our defeat of Secure Communities and all our advocacy work at our annual fundraiser and you can view our video slideshow featuring great images from the year here:
Families For Freedom 5th Annual Fundraiser from Families for Freedom on Vimeo.