[GPSCC-chat] Oct. 29, 6:30 PM: Community meeting with Supervisor Chavez to support immigrant rights

[Spencer Graves]

Hello, All:


       You are all invited to a community meeting with Supervisor Cindy 
Chavez regarding the current Detainer policy of Santa Clara County.  The 
meeting will be at the First Unitarian Church of San José, 160 N. 3rd 
St.  This is important for promoting a sensible immigrant rights program 
here in Santa Clara County.


BACKGROUND:


       Many of you know that the Obama administration has been 
particular aggressive in deporting millions of people in the US without 
documentation of a legal right to be here.  Parents have been deported 
with minor children placed in foster care.  Others have been sent to 
places where they don't know the local language.


       Part of this has been the "Secure Communities" program, under 
which local law enforcement has been asked to hold for up to 48 hours 
people without obvious documentation readily available. During that 
period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were supposed to 
review the case of the detainee for possible deportation.  In practice, 
these 2-day (48 hour) holds have lasted on average 20 days.  Many 
detentions have lasted much longer.   When challenged in the courts, 
some local jurisdictions have been required to pay millions of dollars 
for illegal detention.  In 2011, Santa Clara County voted to opt out of 
the "Secure Communities" program and not honor requests from ICE to hold 
people with questionable documentation of their right to be here unless 
the federal government paid for the extra cost of running that program. 
So far the federal government has refused to pay those extra costs. DA 
Rosen and Sheriff Smith have asked that this police be changed to 
support the detention of "serious and violent offenders" under this 
program.  FIRE insists that US law should have procedures for dealing 
with serious and violent offenders, regardless of the status of legal 
right to be here.  Moreover, the fear of deportation could lead many to 
refuse to report crimes or otherwise cooperate with law enforcement.  
This could make the community less safe, not more. The result could thus 
be the opposite of the stated objectives of the so-called "Secure 
Communities" program.


       Spencer