SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Mississippi Bill Helps Enable Trump's "Sinister" Immigration Crackdown
Days after Trump administration issues report aimed at scaring "jurisdictions into becoming deportation agents," Mississippi poised to enact anti-sanctuary cities law
Mar 22, 2017
Days after the Trump administration put out its first "sinister" immigrant crime list, Mississippi is poised to enact an anti-sanctuary cities bill that one expert says will fuel racial profiling and make communities less safe.
The Mississippi Senate passed the measure, Senate Bill 2710 on Tuesday, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Bryant, who tweeted that he "look[s] forward to signing" it.
It states: "No state agency, department, political subdivision of this state, county, municipality, university, college, community college or junior college, or any agent, employee, or officer thereof shall adopt, or implement a policy, order, or ordinance that (a) limits or prohibits any person from communicating or cooperating with federal agencies or officials to verify or report the immigration status of any person; or (b) grants to any person the right to lawful presence or status within the state, a county, or municipality, or the campus of a university, college, community college, or junior college in violation of federal law."
The state currently has no sanctuary cities. The Jackson, Miss. Clarion-Ledger writes that the legislation is "at least in part in response to an anti-profiling ordinance the city of Jackson adopted in 2010 that would prohibit police questioning people about their immigration status solely to determine if they are in the country illegally."
According to Katherine Klein, Equality for All Advocacy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi, one immediate effect of the bill could be that police officers will engage in racial profiling. "How many people will be questioned, detained, or denied assistance, simply because of the color of their skin?" she wrote in an op-ed at the Biloxi Sun Herald.
And not only would police departments be forced to prioritize federal immigration policies, making them devote less attention to public safety and divert needed fiscal resources, undocumented immigrants may not contact police when needed if the fear of deportation looms, Klein wrote.
For State Sen. Derrick Simmons (D-Grenville) the legislation is "just completely unnecessary."
"It's anti-immigration legislation that we don't need. Certainly now that we are under a Trump administration we're going to see more anti-immigration policies," he added, writes Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
One sanctuary city, Austin, Texas, recently felt the sting of such polices.
The Austin American-Statesman wrote Monday that U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin said he was told by federal agents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids conducted mid-February were retaliation for a new policy enacted by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez.
That policy, enacted Feb.1, meant "that her department no longer would honor most warrantless requests from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to detain jailed suspects who were in the United States illegally, except those charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault, and human smuggling," as the Houston Chronicle wrote.
The revelation of the retaliatory raids, said Jose P. Garza, executive director of the Texas-based Workers Defense Project, "confirms our worst fears and calls into question the legitimacy of recent enforcement actions."
"Many law abiding Austin families were in fact politically targeted in those ICE raids by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security must immediately provide our community with answers," he said in a press statement.
Also on Monday, the administration began "publicly shaming so-called 'sanctuary cities' in an attempt to get them to cooperate with deportation efforts," as the Huffington Post wrote.
That effort comes via the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report, which offers a supposed "weekly list of crimes" committed by immigrants. The Independent writes that it "lists 'examples' of people who are currently in the U.S. and have not been deported by their jurisdiction despite a deportation request by ICE." It includes people who have been charged but not convicted, Yahoo! News notes.
"This is part of an overall strategy to try to scare jurisdictions into becoming deportation agents," said Cody Wofsy, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "And the truth is that jurisdictions have the legal right to refuse to become entangled with the federal immigration enforcement system."
Daniel Jose Camacho, a Masters of Divinity student at Duke Divinity School, describes the list as "sinister" and, echoing Wofsy, adds that it "represents a clear tactic to intimidate local jurisdictions resisting ICE and an attempt to bend them to the will of Trump's policies."
"It also risks stoking the flames of xenophobia and hatred against immigrants--even though the report does not actually substantiate Trump's alarmism," he writes.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Days after the Trump administration put out its first "sinister" immigrant crime list, Mississippi is poised to enact an anti-sanctuary cities bill that one expert says will fuel racial profiling and make communities less safe.
The Mississippi Senate passed the measure, Senate Bill 2710 on Tuesday, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Bryant, who tweeted that he "look[s] forward to signing" it.
It states: "No state agency, department, political subdivision of this state, county, municipality, university, college, community college or junior college, or any agent, employee, or officer thereof shall adopt, or implement a policy, order, or ordinance that (a) limits or prohibits any person from communicating or cooperating with federal agencies or officials to verify or report the immigration status of any person; or (b) grants to any person the right to lawful presence or status within the state, a county, or municipality, or the campus of a university, college, community college, or junior college in violation of federal law."
The state currently has no sanctuary cities. The Jackson, Miss. Clarion-Ledger writes that the legislation is "at least in part in response to an anti-profiling ordinance the city of Jackson adopted in 2010 that would prohibit police questioning people about their immigration status solely to determine if they are in the country illegally."
According to Katherine Klein, Equality for All Advocacy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi, one immediate effect of the bill could be that police officers will engage in racial profiling. "How many people will be questioned, detained, or denied assistance, simply because of the color of their skin?" she wrote in an op-ed at the Biloxi Sun Herald.
And not only would police departments be forced to prioritize federal immigration policies, making them devote less attention to public safety and divert needed fiscal resources, undocumented immigrants may not contact police when needed if the fear of deportation looms, Klein wrote.
For State Sen. Derrick Simmons (D-Grenville) the legislation is "just completely unnecessary."
"It's anti-immigration legislation that we don't need. Certainly now that we are under a Trump administration we're going to see more anti-immigration policies," he added, writes Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
One sanctuary city, Austin, Texas, recently felt the sting of such polices.
The Austin American-Statesman wrote Monday that U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin said he was told by federal agents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids conducted mid-February were retaliation for a new policy enacted by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez.
That policy, enacted Feb.1, meant "that her department no longer would honor most warrantless requests from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to detain jailed suspects who were in the United States illegally, except those charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault, and human smuggling," as the Houston Chronicle wrote.
The revelation of the retaliatory raids, said Jose P. Garza, executive director of the Texas-based Workers Defense Project, "confirms our worst fears and calls into question the legitimacy of recent enforcement actions."
"Many law abiding Austin families were in fact politically targeted in those ICE raids by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security must immediately provide our community with answers," he said in a press statement.
Also on Monday, the administration began "publicly shaming so-called 'sanctuary cities' in an attempt to get them to cooperate with deportation efforts," as the Huffington Post wrote.
That effort comes via the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report, which offers a supposed "weekly list of crimes" committed by immigrants. The Independent writes that it "lists 'examples' of people who are currently in the U.S. and have not been deported by their jurisdiction despite a deportation request by ICE." It includes people who have been charged but not convicted, Yahoo! News notes.
"This is part of an overall strategy to try to scare jurisdictions into becoming deportation agents," said Cody Wofsy, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "And the truth is that jurisdictions have the legal right to refuse to become entangled with the federal immigration enforcement system."
Daniel Jose Camacho, a Masters of Divinity student at Duke Divinity School, describes the list as "sinister" and, echoing Wofsy, adds that it "represents a clear tactic to intimidate local jurisdictions resisting ICE and an attempt to bend them to the will of Trump's policies."
"It also risks stoking the flames of xenophobia and hatred against immigrants--even though the report does not actually substantiate Trump's alarmism," he writes.
Days after the Trump administration put out its first "sinister" immigrant crime list, Mississippi is poised to enact an anti-sanctuary cities bill that one expert says will fuel racial profiling and make communities less safe.
The Mississippi Senate passed the measure, Senate Bill 2710 on Tuesday, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Bryant, who tweeted that he "look[s] forward to signing" it.
It states: "No state agency, department, political subdivision of this state, county, municipality, university, college, community college or junior college, or any agent, employee, or officer thereof shall adopt, or implement a policy, order, or ordinance that (a) limits or prohibits any person from communicating or cooperating with federal agencies or officials to verify or report the immigration status of any person; or (b) grants to any person the right to lawful presence or status within the state, a county, or municipality, or the campus of a university, college, community college, or junior college in violation of federal law."
The state currently has no sanctuary cities. The Jackson, Miss. Clarion-Ledger writes that the legislation is "at least in part in response to an anti-profiling ordinance the city of Jackson adopted in 2010 that would prohibit police questioning people about their immigration status solely to determine if they are in the country illegally."
According to Katherine Klein, Equality for All Advocacy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi, one immediate effect of the bill could be that police officers will engage in racial profiling. "How many people will be questioned, detained, or denied assistance, simply because of the color of their skin?" she wrote in an op-ed at the Biloxi Sun Herald.
And not only would police departments be forced to prioritize federal immigration policies, making them devote less attention to public safety and divert needed fiscal resources, undocumented immigrants may not contact police when needed if the fear of deportation looms, Klein wrote.
For State Sen. Derrick Simmons (D-Grenville) the legislation is "just completely unnecessary."
"It's anti-immigration legislation that we don't need. Certainly now that we are under a Trump administration we're going to see more anti-immigration policies," he added, writes Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
One sanctuary city, Austin, Texas, recently felt the sting of such polices.
The Austin American-Statesman wrote Monday that U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin said he was told by federal agents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids conducted mid-February were retaliation for a new policy enacted by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez.
That policy, enacted Feb.1, meant "that her department no longer would honor most warrantless requests from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to detain jailed suspects who were in the United States illegally, except those charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault, and human smuggling," as the Houston Chronicle wrote.
The revelation of the retaliatory raids, said Jose P. Garza, executive director of the Texas-based Workers Defense Project, "confirms our worst fears and calls into question the legitimacy of recent enforcement actions."
"Many law abiding Austin families were in fact politically targeted in those ICE raids by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security must immediately provide our community with answers," he said in a press statement.
Also on Monday, the administration began "publicly shaming so-called 'sanctuary cities' in an attempt to get them to cooperate with deportation efforts," as the Huffington Post wrote.
That effort comes via the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report, which offers a supposed "weekly list of crimes" committed by immigrants. The Independent writes that it "lists 'examples' of people who are currently in the U.S. and have not been deported by their jurisdiction despite a deportation request by ICE." It includes people who have been charged but not convicted, Yahoo! News notes.
"This is part of an overall strategy to try to scare jurisdictions into becoming deportation agents," said Cody Wofsy, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "And the truth is that jurisdictions have the legal right to refuse to become entangled with the federal immigration enforcement system."
Daniel Jose Camacho, a Masters of Divinity student at Duke Divinity School, describes the list as "sinister" and, echoing Wofsy, adds that it "represents a clear tactic to intimidate local jurisdictions resisting ICE and an attempt to bend them to the will of Trump's policies."
"It also risks stoking the flames of xenophobia and hatred against immigrants--even though the report does not actually substantiate Trump's alarmism," he writes.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.