Press Release

Washington, D.C. –  On Tuesday, June 10, members of the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign, advocates, and attorneys, held a press briefing to discuss the alarming rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of people showing up for their hearings and routine check-ins at immigration courts and ICE offices across the country. 

These arrests and detentions are sowing chaos and profound harm, terrorizing communities, separating families, and punishing people for doing what the U.S. immigration system has asked of them. The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign urges our leaders to oppose these egregious violations of due process, fairness, and the rights of people seeking safety. We call on Congress to stand up against Trump’s mass deportation and detention agenda and deny his administration funding to implement it.

“What we’re seeing today is truly shocking. There’s no other word for it. We are witnessing families being torn apart by masked federal agents; working people being abducted off the streets into unmarked vehicles; civic and labor leaders and everyday people who are protesting peacefully to protect their neighbors, friends, workers, and communities being targeted and people being disappeared where their families, attorneys, and other community members who are looking for them cannot find them, and have no idea what is happening to them and where they are being taken,” said Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director of the National Immigration Project. “This is an extreme and dangerous abuse of power at every level.”

“The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has been receiving reports from across the country about enforcement actions that are now happening everywhere all the time, indiscriminate in its nature. It’s hurting families, vulnerable people, asylum seekers, and people who are already complying with the law. AILA members across the country have reported people being arrested right after their court hearings,” said Greg Chen, Senior Director of Government Relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “We have seen clear evidence – written instructions from the Department of Justice – that shows the immigration court leadership is colluding with the Department of Homeland Security to deny people due process, their fair day in court, and their shot at legal relief.”

“ICE has used the protests in Los Angeles as an excuse to deny access to counsel. They have been disappearing people,” said Yliana Johansen Méndez, Chief Program Officer, Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). “We are trying to locate around 80 community members who have been swept up, and more than half of them do not appear in the ICE detainee locator. What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is an absolute affront and abomination of due process. They are creating chaos and then using it to justify secrecy and silence. They are separating families and people are being disappeared before they can speak to a lawyer. We are at a critical time for immigration policy and a time for all of us to really come together and speak up. This is not acceptable in our democracy.”

“Last Monday, ICE arrested O.J.M., a 24-year-old transgender woman who fled cartel violence and sexual assault in Mexico. She came to Oregon because, in her words, this was the first place she felt like she belonged. She followed every rule, filed her asylum application, attended every check-in, and was doing everything asked of her. But last Monday, without warning, ICE attorneys moved to dismiss her case. And moments later, plainclothes ICE agents arrested her in the courthouse lobby. She was transferred out of state within hours, before her attorneys could even speak to her, and is now in solitary confinement in federal detention for her own protection,” said Isa Peña, Director of Strategy, Innovation Law Lab (ILL). “Let me say this clearly: Oregon has always been a place where people fleeing persecution could find safety and rebuild their lives. When the federal government targets the most vulnerable members of our community, it is attacking the very values that make our state strong.”

“When I arrived to Oregon, it was the first time that I have felt that I belonged anywhere. Especially after moving to the Portland area, I saw people from different places walking freely and unafraid. I also saw how people embraced persons from all gender expressions and identities; here, trans people are respected and recognized. I want to go back to that—to where I felt safe to be myself for the first time in my life,” said O.J.M, as told by Isa Peña, Director of Strategy, Innovation Law Lab (ILL)

“We’ve been seeing government attorneys seemingly acting in coordination with ICE officers that have swarmed the courtrooms,” said Allison Cutler, Supervising Attorney, Immigrant Protection at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). “Last week, we began to see a troubling trend of ICE detaining people regardless of the outcome of their hearing. Even if the judges were continuing the case, that individual was still being violently detained by ICE. I myself witnessed the detention of a pregnant woman who was within her final trimester, and who was on medication. I attempted to advocate to the officers against detention by advising them of her medical condition and the fact that she receives medication. They ignored me, and they detained her anyway.”

“We’ve been on the ground since these arrests started. I really want to highlight the violent nature of these arrests. I myself was present for an arrest in which a mother who was detained tried to express to the officers that she had a small child in school. She began crying, and she was thrown on the ground by ICE; she had six or seven officers on top of her as she cried for her child. This is truly abhorrent,” said Benjamin Remy, Senior Staff Attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). “That same day I witnessed numerous times ICE officers using extreme force against people that are just showing up for their court hearing, the vast majority of whom are seeking asylum here in the United States. Today in court, we saw ICE officers violently tackle an individual in front of an immigration judge. Seeking asylum is a right. We are under an obligation to respect that right.”