03/07/2014
Last week a group of students and community members presented this letter:
Sheriff Thomas Turner and Police Chief Tim Doney,
We are a group of concerned community members. We wish to see a community where there is justice and respect for all people, regardless of documentation status. We value strong families, public safety, and a united community. Deportation is a threat to these values and for the overall well being of our community.
The Secure Communities Act and programs like 287g that allow local law enforcement to enter partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) threaten mixed status communities with deportation. Any interaction with law enforcement could end in detention and deportation. This makes people afraid to go to the police when they need help, including survivors of sexual and physical abuse. This also creates a vulnerable workforce, where the threat of deportation can be used to exploit people by making it unsafe for people to go to law enforcement. Such policies were originally aimed at “criminals” and those perceived to be a “threat” yet we find people with NO criminal record being detained and deported, unjustly criminalizing human existence and migration.
Deportation is violent. It criminalizes and destabilizes community members, creating hardships for all. Documented or not, immigrants are part of Lane County. When people who are providers in their community are removed, others are left to fend for themselves. Some are locked in detention centers for years. Inside these detention centers human rights abuses have consistently been documented and left unaddressed. Furthermore, over half of these detention centers nationwide are run by private corporations, creating a profit motive for detaining people.
Deportations unjustly separates families, causing emotional and psychological distress for all involved. When people try to reunite with their families they often must pay thousands of dollars to make a journey across dangerous borders where thousands of people have gotten lost, injured, or even died.
Lane County governance should be accountable and supportive to its residents, which includes people who are undocumented. People living here, in Lane County, should not have to live with the constant fear of deportation. A police interaction should not inevitably lead to family separation. While the number of deportations from Lane County may not seem high, the fear of deportation that is associated with doing everyday activities always exists for mixed status communities causing anxiety and stress.
Deportation does not benefit Lane County. Secure Communities does not make anyone safer and continues to target community members, costing the county and federal government billions of dollars to sustain.
We ask that Lane County Jail and Springfield City Jail keep our community safe and whole by no longer complying with ICE detainer holds through the Secure Communities act.
Signed,
The Survival Center
MEChA de Lane,
Lauren Regan, Attorney and Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center
The Rev. Dr. Daniel E. H. Bryant, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Eugene
CAUSA
Grupo Latino de Acción Directa de Lane County
Huerta de la Familia
Juventud Faceta
Grupo Latino de Acción Directa (GLAD)’s Feb. 28 forum at St. Alice’s church in Springfield focused on public safety. More than 140 members of the Latino community attended, including Timothy Doney, the new Springfield police chief and Lane County Sheriff Tom Turner, according to one of GLAD’s founde...
