Recap: IL and OR State Officials, Civil Rights Leaders and Immigration Experts Decry Harms of Reckless Mass Deportations

Access a recording of the virtual event HERE

Access online version of the press release HERE

Washington, DC — On a virtual event hosted by America’s Voice today (watch recording here), state elected officials from Illinois and Oregon joined with civil rights leaders and immigration experts to discuss how this administration’s reckless pursuit of mass deportation is harming local communities and undermining public safety and our collective basic rights and dignities.

Illinois Senate Majority Whip Cristina Castro, representing Elgin, IL, stated: “We have actually seen ICE here on the ground, and we had Kristi Noem here a few weeks ago. One of the things that we have been working on with a coalition of different organizations and our rapid response team is making sure people have the information that’s needed to know their rights… As a member of the general assembly, we’ve been trying to look at things that we can do to tighten up some of the laws that are out there right now… we are working very diligently on that. We are seeing a tremendous amount of people who are fearful to go shopping, to go to school, and to get healthcare, and I think one of the things that many of us are trying to do is ease those fears but also try to fight back.”

Oregon State Representative Ricki Ruiz, representing Gresham, OR in Metropolitan Portland stated, “Oregon and our families have seen firsthand the human cost of this administration’s mass deportation push. Families in my community are being torn apart, and trust between immigrant residents and law enforcement is breaking down. No student should fear coming home from school to an empty house. We can hold people accountable when they break the law without punishing entire families who are working hard, paying taxes, and contributing to our communities. Federal guidelines like this do not make us safer, they make us more divided. Oregon’s values are rooted in dignity, fairness, and opportunity, and we’ll continue to stand up for every Oregonian who calls this place home.”

Dominik Whitehead, NAACP Chief of Field, stated, “What we’re seeing across the country and in places like Chicago, Oregon, Memphis, the nation’s capital, Los Angeles is unprecedented, and it’s not normal. We are very clear that this current administration and its actions represent a disgusting abuse of power and a calculated attempt to intimidate Black and Brown Americans and families across the country. Weaponizing the military and ICE against our communities is not about safety; it is about control. The NAACP will not stand by as our communities are treated as enemies in our own country; we will continue to rally, we will resist, and we will continue to fight for the dignity and freedoms of our people and what people deserve.”

Jason Houser, former Chief of Staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stated, “We are at a very perilous time, in my view, for both providing a humane immigration system and also the sort of destruction that we’re seeing in the accountability for both law enforcement at the federal level and ICE officers themselves that are being directed to carry out these operations. As you can see from the volume of these at-large arrests and the tactics that are being used, this provides no real public safety outcome. Additionally, from an ICE enforcement perspective, it makes the work of focusing on public safety and security threats harder. They are dismantling the trust between law enforcement and ICE, its authorities, and its space within national security and public safety mission in law enforcement.”

Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice stated, “What we are witnessing in real time is the cruel normalization of militarized immigration enforcement and the deployment of U.S. troops in American communities. And we are also being desensitized with endless footage of our fellow Americans being detained, hunted down, chased, arrested and tackled by masked agents across our cities. This doesn’t make us any safer. In fact, it does the opposite – it brings violence and fear into our communities and fuels a narrative of chaos. It is a dangerous political gimmick, creating the illusion of a crisis to justify this Administration’s abuse of power and militarization of our communities.”

●     Access a recording of today’s virtual event HERE

●     Read new America’s Voice fact sheet: “Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Is Dangerous – And Americans Know It“