Not one day goes by in California or elsewhere in the United States where you don’t hear about lawsuits being filed for one thing or another. These challenges have many interesting reasons and they are all looking to the courts to give a solution to one side or another. U.S. attorney general Jefferson Sessions has recently announced the filing of a lawsuit that some are saying can knock down SB 54, the California sanctuary law. California legislators must defend its immigrant population.
Sessions, Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan have made a concerted effort to challenge California governor Jerry Brown, California attorney general Xavier Becerra, and Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf on their support for sanctuary for non-criminal undocumented persons in California. Mayor Schaaf is being challenged for issuing a public statement that ICE was about to stage raids in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is being accused of warning criminals and obstructing ICE agents from doing their job.
ICE was formed in 2003 after the September 11, 2001 Twin Towers were attacked. Terrorism was used to question everything and the Patriot Act and so many other laws fomented suspicion and started the white supremacy explosion. Trump and his administration have continued this attack. Legal and political battles have contaminated the immigration issue away from seeking economic recourse for so many people from many countries.
ICE is a growing national police force that is hunting down and racially profiling immigrants for any reason. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against ICE for allegedly separating hundreds of migrant families. ICE is engaged in widespread separation of children from their parents. Detention centers, prisons for undocumented immigrants, are also being challenged for cruel treatment and long incarceration of detainees without their families knowing where they have been taken.
ICE is creating immense fear. It is a government-sponsored terrorism and paid for with public money. Self-deportation is an option being considered by mixed families, especially those facing the threat of separation.
During slavery before the Civil War, Northern leaders resisted enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which was passed by a Southern-dominated Congress. A few Northern states passed “personal liberty laws” which protected runaway slaves from capture and re-enslavement.
We see something similar today, when states with large, racially diverse populations of immigrants view the present ICE laws as being morally repulsive and socially destructive because of the separation of families and the promotion of hatred. Communities are developing Rapid Response interventions and using sanctuary for protection.
We have huge battles going on. The country is being divided on so many fronts. We must resist the criminalization of immigrants, families and the poor. Laws must embrace justice, not terror.
