To: Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Donald Trump
Sign the petition: Families and communities are being ripped apart by ICE
Families and communities are being ripped apart by Trump's newly-emboldened, cruel deportation force. The Department of Homeland Security must direct ICE and other law enforcement agencies to stop separating families, targeting rights activists, and stalking sensitive locations.
Why is this important?
The Trump administration has ramped up its cruel and dangerous deportation agenda—giving more power to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to terrorize communities and families.
ICE agents are stalking schools, churches, and even detaining spouses of U.S. citizens as they apply for green cards. And ICE has recently targeted leaders working to secure right for undocumented Americans, with several organizers arrested in recent days.
Just recently:
*In Maryland, two high school students, Lizandro and Diego Claros, were deported. Their community, their coaches, their classmates, and their family are absolutely devastated.
*In Kansas, Syed Jamal—a chemistry professor who has been in the US for more than 30 years—was detained for deportation by ICE for visa infringements that were at the sole discretion of individual agents. His family and community in Kansas rallied behind him and he earned global media attention. He was recently granted a stay and will be returned, but he is just one example of Donald Trump's ICE ramping up deportations of pretty much anyone they want to.
*Michigan man Jorge Garcia—who had lived in the U.S. for 30 years since he was 10 years old, cooperated with the government, paid taxes, and had no criminal record—was deported on Martin Luther King Day and forced to leave behind his wife and two children.
* In Connecticut, Joel Colindres—a homeowner and taxpayer who lived in New Fairfield, Connecticut with his 3-year-old daughter, 6-year-old son, and wife Samantha—was deported to Guatemala on January 31, 2018. Joel complied with every ICE order.
* In New Jersey, Harry Pangemanan—an Indonesian immigrant who had just been given a civic award for leading crews that rebuilt more than 200 homes since Hurricane Sandy—has been forced to take sanctuary in a church after ICE agents came to his home.
* In New York, immigrant rights leader Ravi Ragbir was arrested at a routine check-in with immigration officials—and religious leaders and local elected officials were arrested trying to block the vehicle taking him away. Since then, a judge has ordered him released. But he is only one of many immigrant leaders recently targeted.
* Also in New York, members of the clergy have said ICE agents have repeatedly come into their congregations and stopped worshippers from entering and exiting, undermining a tradition older than the United States itself of respecting houses of worship as sanctuaries.
* In Washington, D.C., a member of Congress from Arizona called on U.S. Capitol police to arrest any undocumented Americans attending the State of the Union address, who were there at the invitation of other members of Congress to ensure immigrants are not forced back into the shadows by the Trump administration.
And these are just a few examples. As ICE becomes more emboldened and given extra powers by the Trump administration, it will take all of us—from all walks of life—to stand up and demand ICE stop tearing apart families.