Instead, they ask for support to expand the Los Angeles Justice Fund that defends those facing deportation.
More than 100 immigrant advocacy organizations asked the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to require the Migration and Customs Service (ICE) to show a court order to have access to prisons, stations and surveillance posts in the Department of Sheriff (LASD).
“The Board of Supervisors must take a strong position here. Instead of financing the facilitation of arrests and deportations for ICE, the county must reinforce its commitment to defend immigrants by expanding the Los Angeles Justice Fund, ”they say in a letter sent to supervisors this week.
In the letter they denounce that the LASD has continued with the destructive practices of delivering members of the community to ICE. "Only ICE agents have been replaced by private contractors of that agency to make arrests", He says.
“What's more, the LASD spends almost 1.5 million dollars to help ICE with its arrests and deportations, weakening the county's investment by 1.5 million dollars a year to the Los Angeles Justice Fund, a program designed for immigration lawyers to defend families against deportation, ”they say.
They add that the current sheriff has handed over to ICE people who have later been represented by the Los Angeles Justice Fund in the fight because they remain with their families, a total contradiction.
They set an example in the letter sent to the supervisors, the case of Manuel, a beneficiary of the TPS (the Temporary Protection Status program), soccer coach for children and father of five children born in the country, who have lived in the South downtown Los Angeles from the age of nine.
In March 2019, LASD handed it over to ICE contractors who took it to the Adelanto Detention Center where he was detained for eight months. until his immigration lawyer was able to take him out through bail.
They also cited the case of Carlos, a CARECEN client who was brought to the United States when he was only one year old, and after three years he became a permanent resident.
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department arrested him for a violation of his probation and handed him over to ICE. "After three months in Adelanto, CARECEN represented him with funds from the Legal Justice Fund and won his case, but he never had to go through that heartbreaking experience," they say.
The signatory organizations ask the Board of Supervisors to use their budgetary authority, and prohibit county resources from being used to identify, investigate, arrest, detain or facilitate the arrest of immigrants or permanent residents, unless there is a court orderl.
They demanded that ICE agents or contractors not be given access to the Sheriff's facilities or to the use of databases, facilities or equipment.
“As the county with one of the richest and most diverse immigrant communities, Los Angeles County should not be an accomplice to more family separations here in Los Angeles. Instead, the county must strengthen its commitment to defend us from the massive racist and unconstitutional deportation agenda of the Trump administration by expanding the Los Angeles Justice Fund, ”he says.
The opinion She is waiting for a reaction to the organizations letter from the supervisor Hilda Solís.
Below is the entire list of organizations that signed the letter for Los Angeles County:
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
ACLU of Southern California
Advancement Project California
African Communities Public Health Coalition AFSCME Local 148 – LA County Public Defender Union
American Indian Movement – Southern California & California
Anti Recidivism Coalition (ARC)
API Rise
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles
Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) Black and Brown Clergy
Black Jewish Justice Alliance
Black Lives Matter – Los Angeles (BLM-LA) Brothers, Sons, Selves
California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CYIJA)
Central American Resource Center – Los Angeles (CARECEN-LA)
CSO Center
CLEAN Carwash Campaign
Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
Community Coalition
Democratic Socialists of America – Los Angeles (DSA-LA)
Detention Watch Network
Dignity and Power Now
DREAM Team Los Angeles
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation Esperanza Immigrants ’Rights Project
Fair Chance Project
Family: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
Families United to End LWOP (FUEL) Filipino Migrant Center
First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles Food Chain Workers Alliance
Food Empowerment Project Freedom for Immigrants Gabriela South Bay
Ground Game LA Homeboy Industries Homies United
Human Impact Partners Human Rights First ICE out of California Idle No More SoCal Ikar
Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Immigrant Legal Resource Center Immigration Center for Women and Children Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valley
Indivisible
Inner City Struggle
Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA)
Justice LA
Khmer Girls in Action
Kol Tikvah Temple
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA)
Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice
LA Forward
THE LGBT Center
LA Progressive
LA Voice
Leo Baeck Temple
Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition Long Beach Sacred Resistance
March & Rally LA
MPower Change
National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
National Immigration Law Center (NILC) National Lawyers Guild – Los Angeles (NLG-LA)
New City Church of LA Occupy / Abolish ICE LA
Our Gov LA
Pacoima Beautiful
Pangea Legal Services
Pasadena Mennonite Church
People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER)
Pilipino Workers Center
Pomona Economic Opportunity Center Public Counsel
PUSH LA Coalition
Resilience Orange County
Sanctuary Long Beach Coalition
Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN)
South Asian Network
Southwestern Law School Removal Defense Clinic and Pro Bono Removal Defense Program
St. John’s Well Child and Family Center Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) The Church Without Walls
The Strategy Center
UCLA Downtown Labor Center
UCLA Law Students for Immigrant Justice UCLA School of Law Criminal Defense Clinic
UCLA School of Law Immigrants ’Rights Policy Clinic
Unrig LA
Urban Peace Institute (UPI)
Youth Justice Coalition (YJC)
#MeToo Survivors
#MeToo Survivors ’March International
