National Day of Action to #AbolishICE on July 31: RSVP and share the Facebook Event
Sign and share the #WeWontBeComplicit Pledge: lahuelga.com/abolishice
What’s at stake?
In the last month, hundreds of thousands of people have risen up in outrage at the stories of mothers and fathers separated from their children, internment camps for immigrant families fleeing violence and seeking asylum, and have borne witness to the cruelty of ICE, an institution whose purpose is to detain and persecute 11 million people and criminalize parents for daring to dream of giving their children a better life.
ICE relies on institutions we are a part of to function day in and day out. #WeWontBeComplicit
ICE relies on the support of mayors, local police departments, County commissioners that allow ICE to use local jails to detain families. They rely on private tech companies to develop their surveillance technology, and airlines to deport people. They work with the department of labor, schools, DMVs and hospitals and use their records to persecute undocumented people.
We must demand that our cities, counties and all these institutions end their cooperation with ICE. It is our moral duty to refuse to be complicit with ICE’s deportation machine at every level and demand that the institutions we are part of do the same!
Our counties must end their contracts with ICE. Our mayors must end police department collaboration with ICE, ban ICE from questioning people on public transit or any city property, and warn the immigrant community in advance if ICE is planning a raid. The companies we buy from must stop developing technology and selling goods to ICE.
How can we end cooperation with ICE?
Many people are already beginning to take this moral leadership and refusing to be complicit with ICE. Local groups have been working to kick ICE out of their communities and to end police department collaboration with ICE and end county contracts with ICE for years. In the last few weeks, workers at Microsoft and Amazon have started petitions calling on their CEOs to stop developing technology for ICE. An employee of the Montana State Department of Labor quit his job because the department of labor was sending information to ICE that would be used to deport workers. Commercial pilots have said they would refuse to fly planes that are being used to deport or separate families. We must follow their lead.
Find out if your local county has a contract with ICE and helps them detain immigrant families. If they do, demand that your County END its contract with ICE and refuse to participate in the detention of immigrant families. Check out this list to find out. You can use the hashtag #ICEoutof[YourCountyorCity] like #ICEoutofLA - shout out to ICE out of LA Coalition (website, facebook) for holding it down!
Get your mayor to go as far as they can to end cooperation with ICE. This means ending police collaboration with ICE, ban ICE from questioning people on public transit or any city property, and warn the immigrant community in advance if ICE is planning a raid.
Get private companies to stop helping ICE deport families. ICE uses lots of technology produced and sold by companies to deport families. These companies are profiting off of the separation of families. Amazon, Salesforce, and Microsoft have been highlighted for campaigns. Employees and workers at these companies are taking the lead in pushing their employers to stop selling technology and services to ICE. Show up at Amazon warehouses, and promote the petitions to end the sale of technology to ICE.
List of ICE detention centers: https://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/dfs/2015IceDetentionFacilityListing.xlsx
Note: In some cases ICE has contracts with private prison companies that detain immigrant families but in most cases they are actually held by the county. This list is from 2015 so you may have to do a quick google search to confirm the detention facility remains in operation (but detentions and deportations are only growing so very few countries have cancelled detention contracts in the last 3 years).
Types of ICE contracts or agreements:
287g Agreements - Allow for a state or local law enforcement entity to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions. This includes training and sharing of resources for local county or city police that in short make them ICE agents.
Jail Enforcement model of the 287g program is currently used in 20 states and is one of the top level agreements ICE issues
“Hold After Arrest” - County receives payment per night and per individual held in the jail waiting to be picked up by ICE after an arrest have been processed and even after they are allowed to pay bail or be released on their own recognizance.
“Housing Immigrants” - County jails sign contracts to become temporary holding facilities and detention centers while people await immigration court hearings and/or to be transferred to a longer term detention facility.
“Children Detention Facilities” - Cities and counties sign contracts to allow ICE to transfer children to local juvenile detention centers.
“IMAGE” - Agreement signed between ICE and companies to train on hiring practices BUT also establishes a procedure to report suspected undocumented immigrants to ICE. It also asks employers to establish a tip line for employees to report undocumented workers to ICE. https://www.ice.gov/image (look for partners to find your company)
Replicable Action Tactics
Amazon Warehouses and Offices:
Bring lots of people and protest outside of the Amazon Warehouse demanding they stop selling their technology to ICE. They even sell AbolishICE t-shirts on Amazon! Amazon is a great target.
Offices: Lie-in on thermal blankets at city or county offices!
Bring lots of people to your city or county offices and demand that your local government not be complicit with ICE. Bring lots of people inside the city hall or county offices and lie down with thermal blankets until you are told to leave. The emergency thermal blankets symbolize the families being separated by ICE and border patrol. Remember to bring signs making your demands and hashtags explicit.
Meetings: Lie-in or disrupt the next city/council meeting!
Show up with lots of people to your next city/county council meeting, make noise, bring visuals and take over the room. Find out if your Mayor, City Council members or County Executives have public forums, town halls, or any public events coming up and do the same thing!
