FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2015
CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]
BREAKING THE ICE
NILC Calls for ICE-free Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today voted to end its 287(g) agreement with the federal government, ending the contract that enhanced collusion between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and local police, and terminating ICE’s permanent presence in Los Angeles jails. At the same time, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department took steps toward launching the “PEP” deportation program, which critics have decried as a reboot of the fundamentally flawed S-Comm program that tore apart families. Below is a statement from Shiu Ming Cheer, immigration attorney with the National Immigration Law Center:
“All our community members, no matter where they were born or how much money they have, should be able to live free from fear of being torn away from their loved ones. Today’s decisions bring us one step closer and one step further away from this important ideal. Although we applaud the Board of Supervisors for finally rescinding the 287(g) agreement that has led to the deportation of tens of thousands of Angelenos and closing ICE’s office in Los Angeles jails, we are deeply troubled to see that the county may continue collaboration with ICE through the PEP program.
“PEP, in our view, is merely more of the same old, failed detention and deportation system. The fingerprint-check dragnet that led to unnecessary deportation for so many community members and spawned further mistrust of local law enforcement should be abolished, not renamed. We fought hard to get rid of S-Comm, and we will not rest until we are rid of this latest iteration. Los Angeles is safer for everyone when it is ICE-free.”
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