NEWSIMMIGRATION REFORM

Originally posted on the Reform Immigration for America blog.

Breaking news this morning – Connecticut’s Joe Arpaio is now out of a job. Thanks to more than 15,000 signatures on our Change.org petition calling on East Haven, CT Mayor Maturo to fire Chief Gallo, it was announced that Chief Gallo will be stepping down.

This campaign started receiving major attention and support for last week’s text-a-taco action and delivery to Mayor Maturo’s office, but it quickly focused attention on the serious underlying structural problems in the police department of East Haven. Let’s be clear: Chief Gallo resigned because his department had a history of racism and that those issues have not been seriously addressed.

The resignation is a welcome step, but the institutional racism running rampant in East Haven will not be overcome by a single act. We are committed to making sure it becomes a step forward in rebuilding the respect and trust desperately needed between East Haven leadership and the Latino community.

We are committed to holding the mayor and the town’s police department accountable in these next steps. We will be working with our allies at JUNTA for Progressive Action to plan the upcoming community dinner, and we invite the Mayor to use the dinner as an opportunity to begin serious conversations toward a future of greater racial understanding.

It took serious attention and outrage to address a problem that many thought would not be solved. Thank you all for stepping up to the challenge, and demanding the righting of years of wrongs in East Haven -- please share this victory far and wide online, as a reminder of the power of immigrant families united!

Guest post from Nicole Cairns at the Reform Immigration for America campaign. 

Yesterday, we delivered the 500 tacos you sent to Mayor Maturo of East Haven, CT. Your response was far more than we expected. So far, more than 4,500 people have texted us and, instead of sending the rest of the tacos to the mayor, we’re going to host a community dinner in your honor.

But this story isn’t over.

When we delivered the tacos to Mayor, he ran out the back door to avoid us. And, in an interview set to air on WFSB-TV this weekend, the Mayor’s comments continue to be tone deaf:

“I was voted in for my 11th year. I have an obligation as the leader of our community to do what is right for our community.”

“I’m going to be a better leader and we are going to heal. We are going to make East Haven a great place to live.”

East Haven cannot “heal” or be a “great place to live” until the institutional racism that plagues the town is gone.Mayor Maturo isn’t going anywhere. But the chief of police, Leonard Gallo, is another story.

Tuesday night, family and community members gathered at the Juntos Community Center in Philadelphia to hold vigil for Miguel Orellano, a father who has been in ICE detention for nearly four months. One notable absence in the crowd asking for Miguel's release was his fiancee, Jessica. Last week, Jessica - who is pregnant with the couple's second child - went into early labor and was hospitalized. The stress of her job and raising her son Noah without Miguel's support seems to have taken a toll on her health. She was initially released but has been re-admitted and is currently on strict bed rest. Miguel's continued absence is not only emotionally devastating for Jessica and Noah, but it's actually putting the couple's unborn child at risk.

Sign the Dream Activist petition asking ICE to release Miguel on bond. 

Community members argue that this unnecessary trauma is due to the fact that ICE will not release Miguel - who is clearly not a flight risk or a threat - to be with his family while he fights his deportation case. Miguel was brought to the United States when he was only nine years old, he grew up here, went to high school, met Jessica and started a family.  You can read more on the background of his case here.

Says Miguel's lawyer, David Bennion, "I filed a formal request.. at the end of October asking ICE to set bond so he can be with his family while he is fighting his case--a very reasonable and minimal ask.  They denied it the day after they got it.  This is consistent with their treatment of other cases under the new program, and it represents a failure of the process, which is unsurprising given the administration's track record.  This is one way Miguel's case has national resonance".

This week many people are putting the finishing touches on their holidays plans, packing suitcases, buying gifts and preparing guest rooms for the arrival of loved ones. But some families are mindful of that extra chair at the dinner table that will remain empty or the holiday tradition that won't be the same without a missing family member. These are the families who have loved ones behind bars in immigration detention. And they need your help to bring their loved ones home for the holidays.

1. Hector Ortega-Valladares (#A98908939)

Update [12/23/11]: Huge progress! Since we wrote this post, we heard from Hilda that Hector was released on Humanitarian Parole this week! While he will still be fighting deportation - and will be wearing an ICE-issued ankle monitoring bracelet - Hilda is thrilled he will be home for the holidays. Hilda says, Miguelito, [Hector's grandson, who is pictured] didn't even want to go to daycare because he didn't want to leave Hector's side".

These are people like Hilda and her husband Hector (pictured left), who has been in immigration detention since June of this year. Hector fled Honduras after being brutally beaten for his political beliefs and - because he didn't realize he could apply for asylum when he entered - was living and working in California without proper documents when he met Hilda. After being pulled over for a minor traffic violation, Hector was arrested and turned over to ICE custody. Even though he is an ideal candidate for discretion under new DHS guidelines, Hector remains behind bars. Recently Hector - also a cancer survivor - was the subject of a violent beating inside the detention center. Hilda is holding out hope that her petition could bring her husband Hector Ortega-Valladares back home before the holidays.

Update: Today the Department of Justice announced the findings of its two year-long investigation of Sheriff Arpaio. And it wasn't pretty. In their report, they cited rampant lawbreaking and violations of civil rights has been carried out by Arpaio and his staff. Among some of the statistics cited, the DOJ "found Latino motorists are four to nine times more likely to be stopped by sheriff's deputies than non-Latinos, often without any legal cause."

After the DOJ's announcement, DHS also announced that they were revoking Maricopa County's access to the 287g program and restricted access to the Secure Communities program - two of the immigration programs that granted Arpaio the power and authority to run his extreme immigration crackdown.With these two developments, it's looking like even more firepower is being added to the push for Arpaio's resignation.

Wednesday morning, nearly one hundred people showed up to a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. They were there to ask that Sheriff Joe Arpaio resign from office. Arpaio, self-proclaimed as "America's Toughest Sheriff," has a notorious record of attention-grabbing antics, abuses of power, negligence, and, perhaps most notable of all, a remarkable ability for his mistakes to go unpunished. Even after the Department of Justice launched an investigation into his office, Sheriff Joe has escaped unscathed.

Until now.

Last week, news broke that Arpaio's office failed to investigate hundreds of sex crimes, including crimes against children of undocumented immigrants. John Dougherty, a former investigative journalist for the Phoenix New Times, has seen first-hand the irreversible damage Arpaio has done to Maricopa County. Last week, he decided he'd seen enough. It was time for Joe to go. He started a petition to call for Arpaio's resignation, and in just one week, over 2,700 people have joined him to push Sheriff Joe out of office.

Update: From the AP today, "New Jersey officials are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to approve a contract that would nearly double the number of immigrant detainees housed in the state." The Freeholders will vote tonight on the proposed contract - Kathy is asking for everybody to please sign and share the petition widely. Tonight, people will pack the meeting again, but your support is absolutely vital.

Last Wednesday, a few dozen dedicated community members gathered in the cold rain pounding down on Military Park to protest the expansion of immigrant prison for profit in Newark, NJ. They were joined by members of the Occupy Newark protest as they marched to the local branch of Wells Fargo, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and finally to the Hall of Records. Kathy O'Leary, who started the petition to stop the expansion of an immigrant detention center in Essex County, NJ, led the group as they marched through the rainy Newark streets chanting "jobs not jails" and "immigrants are the 99%".

As Kathy noted in a Facebook post earlier this week: "The real drama, however, was at the freeholder meeting." The Essex County Freeholders are responsible for the proposed expansion of a new immigrant detention center as a way to generate revenue for the county. While last week's meeting did not include a vote on this expansion, the meeting was open to public comments from those in attendance - and you can bet that the rain-soaked protestors had a few things to say. The Freeholders, who were attending a "holiday celebration" when the marchers arrived, were served a major reality check after their holiday fun.

This week, Cesar Zambrano waited anxiously, knowing that his brother David could be facing deportation at any moment. It was a desperate situation for the family and friends of a young Dreamer and Flordia business student who considers himself an American. But on Wednesday, after nearly 1,200 people signed the petition Dream Activist started on Change.org asking ICE to release David - and after over 300 phone calls to ICE offices - Cesar received an early Christmas present: his brother came home. Victory!

After two months behind bars at Stewart Detention Center, David Zambrano was finally released this past Wednesday and allowed to return home to his family in Florida just in time for the holidays.

David was pulled over in October and after the officer learned he was driving without a valid license, he was arrested. While in custody, police learned that David was undocumented and immediately turned him over to immigration agents, who put him behind bars in Georgia, a full state away from his family in Florida.

His brother, Cesar says," We are very excited to finally have David back at home and in time for the holidays. David is so grateful for the support he has been shown," it was a lot more than I could have expected," he said.

If you're reading this post, your best friend may be a Dreamer. Or maybe you are one of the tens of thousands of people living with a loved one in detention.  You could be trying everything to keep your family together.

Whatever your situation, if you are fighting the detention or deportation of a loved one, you are certainly not alone. Immigrant youth first pioneered the use of public campaigns to cancel the deportation of their friends, family, and community members years ago, but the past few months have seen dozens of these types of campaigns taking off on the Change.org platform, as new deportation guidelines are emerging in the United States.

If you are still deciding whether to launch a public campaign around deportation, you will need to consider a few things very carefully. First, before you do anything else, make sure the individual facing deportation has a good immigration lawyer who has filed for discretion with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If the individual doesn’t have a lawyer, click here to find one before starting your campaign. If you need a pro-bono (free/low-cost) option, try this list. Without a lawyer, it will be virtually impossible to win what’s called a “stay of deportation."

This video will walk you through the steps of setting up or fully launching your campaign on Change.org:

Tomorrow, despite great odds, Kim will be celebrating Thanksgiving with the love of her life: her husband Andy. Andy had spent six long months behind bars, separated from Kim and almost forced to board a deportation plane on multiple occasions, but today the couple is reunited. After more than 1,500 people signed Kim's Change.org petition asking DHS for Andy's release, he is finally home by Kim's side. Victory!

This is a huge moment for Kim and Andy, Kim's daughter who is serving in the U.S. Navy abroad, the couple's community and the small business they run in Florida. Andy was also granted deferred action on his deportation order, to give him time to adjust his status and eventually become a legal resident, as Kim's husband.

After serving for years in the Royal Navy, Andy had come to the United States on a visa and soon after, in a friendly Florida pub, he met his future wife, Kim. When they married, Kim bought that same bar and the two lovebirds became local business owners. They were diligent about keeping Andy's paperwork up to date and Kim had started the process to petition for Andy's citizenship as her spouse. The couple's nightmare began because Andy had submitted some of his immigration paperwork after a given deadline, which triggered a deportation order against him.

Last week, JB Librojo was told he must report to the San Francisco airport where he would be met by ICE agents who might deport him back to the Philippines, a country he hadn't seen in over 15 years. This was the second time that JB was told to report to the airport without knowing what his future held. The first time - on November 12th - he was given a temporary stay, but the following week he was told to get a new ticket. But late Friday afternoon, JB received a phone call: he was granted a one year stay of deportation. Victory!

This is a huge relief and a joyous moment for JB, his community, and his friend Voltaire, who started the Change.org petition to stop his deportation. Voltaire worked tirelessly to recruit over 8,600 supporters on JB's petition, earn media attention, and involve elected officials who could help win JB relief. All of Voltaire's work paid off, and now his college friend, fraternity brother and groomsmen will not be forced to board a plane back to a country he barely knows.

JB and his wife Ana recorded a message celebrating the good news and thanking the more than 8,600 supporters from Change.org. Check it out: