Protesters oppose deportation program (Fontana Herald News)

Protesters oppose deportation program

By ALEJANDRO CANO
Published: Thursday, September 3, 2009 11:43 AM CDT

When Rocio Martinez, 45, and her husband were stopped by a police officer while they traveled through Montclair streets on a Friday evening in mid-July, she never imagined that by the end of the weekend her family would be torn apart.

That is because Arturo Hernandez, 38, was driving without a valid driver’s license, and under the 287 (g) program, he was a candidate for deportation for not having legal documents to reside in the United States.

“I need my husband back, he was the only provider and now we are suffering the consequences of an unfair law,” said Martinez. “He is not a criminal and he didn’t deserve to be deported. He is a good man and all he wanted was to achieve the American dream. Why don’t they leave us alone?”

To try to prevent any more “unfair” deportations, more than 500 community, labor, faith, and civil rights organizations from around the country held events on Aug. 28 to urge government officials to eliminate the program, which allegedly causes civil and human rights violations, including racial profiling.

Armed with signs that read, “Stop 287 (g)” and “Stop the Abuse, Justice for All,” a group of local leaders from various organizations gathered at the San Bernardino County executive building to deliver a letter to each of the Board of Supervisors after explaining that expanding the program could increase the abuses.

“Facing immigration enforcement quotas, daily street corner raids, and rampant racial profiling, immigrants in the Inland Empire live in constant fear. Expanding the 287 (g) program can only lead to an increase in the type of civil and human rights abuses we have already been experiencing and must not be allowed to continue,” said Suzanne Foster, executive director of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center.

A similar letter along with hundreds of signatures was sent to President Barak Obama the same day.

“We applaud your recent remarks acknowledging that ‘there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately,’ however, DHS’s continued use of the 287 (g) program exacerbates exactly this type of racial profiling,” stated the letter signed by Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, on behalf of the 521 organizations that support the program’s elimination. “The abusive misuse of the 287 (g) program by its current slate of agencies has rendered it not only ineffective but dangerous to community safety.”

ACCORDING to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the program, part of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, has emerged as one of the most successful and popular partnership initiatives in the country, yielding more than 100,000 potentially removable aliens since its inception in 2006.

“(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) takes the concern raised about the program by the signatories to this letter very seriously. The new, standardized 287 (g) agreements that were announced in July strengthen ICE’s oversight of the program and make our communities safer by identifying and removing criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat,” said Matthew Chandler, ICE spokesperson in a prepared statement.

However, local leaders argued that the program has failed to meet the federal government objectives and instead has caused panic among the immigrant communities.

“Innocent U.S. citizens have fallen victim to the 287 (g) program and whole families have been separated as a result of even minor traffic violations,” said Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, which is handling Martinez’s case. “I hope the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will recognize that this failed experiment hurts our public safety more than its alleged benefits, and I urge them to refuse to sign the new 287 (g) agreement.”

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department adopted the 287 (g) program in October of 2005 while the Riverside County Sheriff Department did it on April of 2006.

Meanwhile, Martinez continues to hope for the safe return of her husband, whom she talks to every day and who resides in Mexico City with his mother. Martinez, a mother of two children, prays for a change — the change President Obama promised during his two-year campaign.

“He promised us change... and to this day, everything is the same. I support the program only when they deport real criminals, but to deport my husband for not having a valid driver’s license is just not fair,” concluded Martinez with tears in her eyes.