Recently the New Sanctuary Coalition has been meeting with someone both knowledgeable about and well-placed to impact the issues at hand: Dora Schriro, the new DOC commissioner, who came to New York from an Obama administration post specifically aimed at reforming the nation's system of pre-deportation detention.
Angad Bhalla, a New Sanctuary member, said Schriro seemed "very open and honest" in hearing from activists about recommendations such as barring DOC's daily sharing of prisoner information with ICE. The DOC does not solicit detainees' immigration status. However, information about a prisoner's country of birth is available online in DOC's publicly accessible inmate database. Bhalla said that providing this information to ICE makes it easier for the organization to keep tabs on who's who.
Now, an umbrella organization called East Harlem Against Deportation – and supporters like State Sen. Jose M. Serrano – is urging DOC, through a report, to further restrict ICE access to pre-trial detainees and to bar the sharing of fingerprint data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Make the Road is calling for City Council legislation to do the same thing, completely restricting ICE, which reportedly has free office space at Rikers, from access to pre-trial detainees.
Speaking at the East Harlem Against Deportation press conference in September, local Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito said, "We also have to make a demand of our mayor to say that we don't accept that kind of enforcement, or meddling, in our correctional institutions."
Working with the Children's Aid Society, East Harlem Against Deportation gathered 1,000 letters over the past six months urging President Obama to put a halt on the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants. Between 1998 and 2007, over 100,000 parents of U.S. citizens were deported from the U.S., according to a 2009 report by the Department of Homeland Security.
City Limits Magazine
Summer 2008:
Civil Liberties in Today's New York
News Topics
Justice
Government
Author
Rachel Stern
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- Rachel Stern
