FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2021
Contact: media@caircoalition.org
As the Biden administration launches its audit of ICE, civil rights organizations across the country to conduct their own investigations
Washington, D.C. – As the Biden administration embarks on its audit of the Department of Homeland Security, including a full-scale study on current practices at ICE and CBP, civil and immigrant rights organizations across the country will conduct their own, independent Truth and Accountability Forums on the country’s immigration enforcement arm.
Cities across the country will hold “Truth and Accountability” forums, inviting community members who have been personally impacted by ICE to testify to the agency’s devastating impact.
The series of local forums will culminate in a nationwide forum, in which immigration reform leaders will present the first-hand accounts gathered and assess the administration’s first 100 days and where President Biden stands on standing up to the cruelty, corruption, and bloat of the current deportation machine. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, will be invited to attend.
“As we continue to defend one another, the people directly impacted by our fundamentally unjust immigration system must remain front and center. We are grateful to provide a platform for individuals to share their own stories as we hold the Biden administration accountable and push them forward,” said Claudia Cubas, CAIR Coalition Litigation Director.
The nationwide campaign is structured around the following policy demands for the Biden Administration’s first 100 days:
- Immediately make good on President Biden’s promise to halt deportations by directing ICE to grant Stays of Removal to all individuals facing deportation and conduct a review to release every person currently in detention; 120 legal experts and law professors have explained, the temporary restraining order issued by a Trump-appointed Judge does not bar the Biden Administration from taking these actions.
- Close detention facilities and end the use of private prisons and state and local jails
- Stop fusing policing with mass deportation by ending the 287(g) program, the Secure Communities program, and the use of ICE detainers
- Close hundreds of thousands of pending deportation cases on the immigration court docket
- Adopt prosecutorial discretion guidelines that provide relief from hyper-criminalization, not more punishment
- Allow people seeking asylum at the southern border to enter the country—instead of detaining or turning them away
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About Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition: CAIR Coalition strives to ensure equal justice for all immigrant adults and children at risk of detention and deportation in the Capital region area and beyond through direct legal representation, know your rights presentations, impact litigation, advocacy, and the enlistment and training of attorneys to defend immigrants. More information can be found at www.caircoalition.org.
About #WeAreHome: The We Are Home campaign is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational coalition calling on the Biden administration and Congress to take immediate action to protect millions of immigrants who call this country home and end the cruelty of our interior detention and deportation system.
