FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2014

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

Breaking ICE Holds
NILC Praises Los Angeles for Standing Up for Public Safety

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Charlie Beck today announced that city police will no longer honor most requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants suspected of being deportable. This announcement, which comes after several years of immigrant-led organizing, makes Los Angeles one of several California cities that has created a policy that goes beyond the California TRUST Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from turning community members who have been arrested for minor infractions over to ICE. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, which is based in Los Angeles:

“All Angelenos — no matter where they were born — should celebrate this welcome piece of news that will go a long way toward restoring trust between local law enforcement and immigrant communities. By breaking the vicious detention and deportation cycle facilitated by LAPD and ICE, residents of all backgrounds will once again feel safe coming forward as survivors of or witnesses to crime without making themselves, their neighbors, or their loved ones susceptible to being placed in the detention and deportation system.

“Today’s news is the result of years of organizing and advocacy by immigrant Angelenos, who have borne the brunt of President Obama’s disastrous Secure Communities policy, which has streamlined the immigration detainer process since 2009. This program has shattered thousands of Los Angeles families and cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year.

“Los Angeles is the latest in a long line of cities and counties that have declared a collective ‘Ya basta!’ to ICE detainers. We hope this message reaches open ears in Washington, where U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are reviewing the nation’s detention and deportation practices. They should follow the lead of immigrant-rich Los Angeles and make immigration detainers — which have caused immeasurable pain to immigrant families and hurt public safety for all of us — a thing of the past.”

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