PROTECT PHILADELPHIA RESIDENTS!
END POLICE COLLABORATION WITH ICE
WE DEMAND: AN END TO COOPERATION WITH ICE HOLDS
These are common-sense measures to protect immigrant families, save precious city dollars, uphold constitutional due process protections and restore public trust between local police and the immigrant community. We call on Mayor Nutter, to end this destructive program so Philadelphia can continue to grow and live up to its values of brotherly love and sisterly affection.
What are ICE Holds:
· ICE holds, aka detainers, are requests from the federal deportation office to local Philadelphia law enforcement to hold someone who should otherwise be released.
· Holds are issued by ICE (not the police) to folks solely because of their immigration status. They are not criminal warrants and they are not reviewed by a judge before they are issued.
· Holds are able to be issued because of information sharing between the Philadelphia police and ICE. ICE has direct, remote access to the Philadelphia police’s electronic database, which they read to identify if people held in police custody are non-citizens. The Philadelphia police can also call ICE to report that they have someone in custody who is a non-citizen and therefore potentially deportable.
· Holds can be issued at any point during a criminal case: during an arrest, during a bail hearing, during a court case, during a prison sentence or while that person is on probation or parole.
· Holds are issued in most cases without that person getting an interview or any opportunity to challenge the hold or talk to an attorney.
· If a person is picked up on a hold, they are taken to immigration detention, where they are held indefinitely while the government tries to deport them.
· Studies have shown that when ICE is issuing holds in a particular city, the police are more likely to racially profile the immigrant population.
· Immigration officers also have unrestricted access to the criminal records of every person arrested in Philadelphia, and they can interview anyone they want in Philadelphia custody, at any time. No one is provided with an attorney during these interviews or advised of their right to refuse the interview.
ICE HOLDS Effects are:
Endangering Public Safety - Secure Communities and other deportation programs are destroying trust in local law enforcement, further endangering local residents. Victims and witnesses are often afraid to report crimes since any contact or cooperation with law enforcement could result in separation from their families and deportation. Everyone's public safety is damaged when large portions of the community do not feel safe reporting crimes and cooperating with police. Ending these programs will make us all safer.
Separating Families – These programs have been a major tool in the escalation of deportations and the separation of families here in Philadelphia and across the country. ICE deported 1.5 million people in the last four years – 1,100 people every day. The city of Philadelphia is one of the 30 counties in the country that has deported the highest number of people with non-criminal backgrounds.
Racial Profiling - Police can target people based on race or ethnicity, arrest them on a minor charge, such as a traffic violation, and book them into a local jail knowing they will be passed to ICE.
Wastes Our Precious Tax Dollars - ICE does not compensate local jurisdictions for holding individuals for longer periods of time, which creates an unnecessary financial burden on local communities and contributes to overcrowding of prisons. When Philadelphia is closing public schools, we cannot afford to throw money down the drain. Our budget decisions are moral decisions, and we should be putting these resources to education, health care, housing and dignified jobs.
Violating Civil Rights – Information is shared so early in the process, right after booking, that people’s Constitutional rights to due process are violated.
Violating Our Values – These programs violate our faith’s values to welcome the stranger and love our neighbor, and our country’s values of freedom, justice and equality. Ending these programs will ensure that both immigrant and non-immigrant communities are treated with equality and dignity under the law and in our city.
The Solution
We are asking Philadelphia officials to support, protect our families, public safety, and to live up to its values by making a clear distinction between local police and civil immigration enforcement. We are asking Mayor Nutter to: Sign an Executive Order stating that the city of Philadelphia will Stop honoring ICE’s holds on our community.