FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Contact: Jessica Felix Romero, Jobs With Justice, jessica@jwj.org, 202-393-1044 x104
Jobs With Justice calls on Joe Biden to commit to abolishing ICE as President
“DACA recipients and their families will not be safe as long as ICE exists.”
Washington, DC – Citing the still rampant reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers harassing Dreamers within their places of work, their schools, their communities, and within their homes, Jobs With Justice is calling on candidate Joe Biden to commit to abolishing ICE as President.
Jobs With Justice is making this demand as an organization that is on the front lines in the fight against ICE terror, having been a part of key victories to keep ICE out of hotels, businesses and whole communities. Last week’s Supreme Court decision to uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is another victory that came in the wake of years of tireless organizing — but Jobs With Justice knows from experience that this will not stop ICE.
“Last week’s Supreme Court decision to uphold the DACA program benefits over 700,000 Dreamers in this country and is a huge victory against Trump’s racist deportation machine,” said Jobs With Justice Senior Immigration Organizer Natalie Patrick-Knox. “But the mere presence of DACA does not prevent the racist and unaccountable violence immigrants and people of color experience at the hands of ICE and police on a near daily basis.”
Due to coordination with local police forces, ICE continues to collect information and monitor DACA recipients, waiting for an opportunity to arrest them — whether that opportunity presents itself as an expired license, DACA permit, or any other excuse to detain Dreamers.
That is why, in addition to a commitment from the Biden campaign to abolish ICE, Jobs With Justice is demanding that local governments not wait, and that they sever all ties between their local police forces and ICE.
“ICE has proven time and time again that they will not be held accountable for targeting and arresting people of color, regardless of their immigration status,” said Patrick-Knox. “ICE’s disrespect for democratically won protections by and for immigrants only proves the point that they have no right to exist within our democracy. We hope Joe Biden, and all forms of government at every level, recognizes that DACA recipients and their families will not be safe as long as ICE exists.”
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Jobs With Justice is the country’s leading nonprofit in the fight for workplace and economic democracy. Comprising a national network of local affiliates in nearly every state, Jobs With Justice brings together coalitions of unions, worker organizations, community groups, students, and faith institutions to win concrete improvements in people’s lives.
