PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and the national American Civil Liberties Union have released a new report, Cold Reality: Uncovering the Cruelty and Chaos of ICE Operations in Pennsylvania, that alleges “cruel, inhumane, and racist” tactics Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Pennsylvania.
The findings in the report include evidence that ICE arrests in Pennsylvania disproportionately target Latin American men of color who work low-wage jobs; that ICE officers knowingly separate children from their parents in nearly one-third of all Pennsylvania arrests; and that state and local law enforcement continue to work with ICE, wasting government resources on unlawful arrests and detentions that terrorize Pennsylvania communities.
“This report confirms that ICE abuses are not isolated incidents or the work of a few bad apples, they are systemic features of how ICE operates,” said Vanessa Stine, senior staff attorney for immigrant rights at the ACLU of Pennsylvania and an author of the report. “There is no distinction under the U.S. Constitution between the rights of noncitizens and citizens. This report is a damning condemnation of how ICE violates people’s rights every day.”
The report is based on a review of nearly 2,500 I-213 records – the form used by the Department of Homeland Security to make the case for deportation of a person they allege is a noncitizen– obtained from ICE via Freedom of Information Act litigation. The I-213 records are a sampling of more than 16,000 I-213 records prepared by ICE in Pennsylvania between 2016 and 2020.
“This report documents the targeting of low wage workers by ICE officers in Pennsylvania and confirms the role of ICE in enforcing a racialized labor system. Immigration enforcement against workers enables exploitation in the workplace and harms all workers,” said Caitlin Barry, director of the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. “The fear of retaliation from ICE prevents workers from organizing and asserting their rights in the workplace. Our local governments should take immediate action to protect workers and cease collaborating with ICE.”
“Arresting and detaining those who are working their way through the broken immigration system is not a solution,” said Mike Lee, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Immigration detention facilities operating in Pennsylvania drive the demand for arrests and encourage widespread constitutional violations. It’s time to end the cruel and unnecessary practice of detaining immigrants; this would go a long way in preventing the kind of ICE abuses detailed in this report.”
The report urges Pennsylvania lawmakers and other state decision makers to fund universal legal representation for people in deportation proceedings in the commonwealth; to end ICE collaboration with state and local law enforcement; to close all Pennsylvania immigration detention facilities; and to make driver's licenses available to all Pennsylvania residents, regardless of their immigration status.
You can read the full report at aclupa.org/ICE2024.
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