February 25, 2011
The ACLU of MS will join MIRA, MS Immigrant Rights Alliance at a press conference today at noon after receiving reports from citizens about ICE raids that started during the weekend of February 18th in Jackson, MS. While the facts surrounding these incidents are still under investigation, the stories are shocking and shameful. We’ve heard stories about ICE officers posing as pizza delivery workers in order to raid apartment complexes, threats and violent acts towards individuals. This is being done despite the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of warrantless intrusions into private homes, which apply to all persons, regardless of immigration status.
This is only a small glimpse of the hateful, race-based profiling that will occur if Mississippi law makers pass Senate Bill 2179, the racial profiling bill that will enable law enforcement to question individuals based on whether or not they look like they were born in this country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has aggressively stepped up enforcement efforts by conducting numerous and far-reaching worksite and residential raids. The stories that we’ve heard today are not new. ICE has been doing this all over the country. They are known to engage in a pattern and practice of selectively targeting predominantly Latino neighborhoods and worksites; entering people’s homes without proper warrants; and manipulating, coercing or intimidating already scared individuals to “consent” to enter their homes in order to conduct interrogations about their immigration status. This is simply unacceptable.
Looking Latino and speaking Spanish is not enough to justify probable cause for questioning and arresting a person. We live in a country where the Constitution ensures that all persons should be given equal protection and fair treatment under the law regardless of the color of their skin, their appearance or their accent.
For More Information, contact: Nsombi Lambright, 601-573-3978
Tags: Immigration
Posted in Press Releases
September 28, 2010
As I write this, senators in Judiciary Committee A are meeting to discuss potential immigration legislation. Through personal and newspaper reports, I’ve heard that some of the legislators want to bring a law to Mississippi very similar to Arizona’s controversial SB1070. It would require every police officer to ask people for their papers based only on some undefined “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country unlawfully. To avoid arrest, citizens and non-citizens will effectively have to carry their “papers” at all times.
Fortunately, many ACLU-MS members have sent an email to members of Judiciary Committee A, telling them not to import Arizona’s bad law to Mississippi.
Throughout today and tomorrow, others will also be conveying their concerns to the committee. The ACLU of Mississippi’s Executive Director, Nsombi Lambright, will be speaking Wednesday. Her remarks are certain to be compelling. As an African-American woman who’s family has lived in Mississippi since slavery, and as a daughter whose mother was active in the Civil Rights Movement, Nsombi knows well the grim consequences of racial profiling.
By the way, you can stay up to date on these hearings–and any future legislation, on this page of our website: http://www.aclu-ms.org/home/noracialprofiling.htm
Tags: Immigration
Posted in Op-Eds
September 22, 2010
CONTACT:
Nsombi Lambright, ACLU-MS Executive Director, 601-573-3978; nlambright@aclu-ms.org
Bear Atwood, ACLU-MS Acting Legal Director, 601-354-3408 or 862-8658; bearatwood@aclu-ms.org
JACKSON - The ACLU of Mississippi announced today that it applauds the Jackson City Council 6-1 vote to pass an anti-racial profiling ordinance. The ordinance prohibits police officers from stopping or detaining people based on the person’s race, immigration status, perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. It also prohibits police officers from asking people about their immigration status solely to determine if they are in the United States illegally.
“I commend the council members for standing up for the protection of civil rights and civil liberties,” said Nsombi Lambright, ACLU-MS Executive Director. “A person’s race should never be grounds to suspect that someone has committed a crime. This ordinance declares that Mississippi’s capital city will not tolerate racial profiling.”
The ordinance also enforces basic Constitutional protections.
“The Constitution guarantees equal protection and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement,” said Bear Atwood. “This ordinance underscores those protections and reminds police officers that they have a sworn duty to uphold them.”
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Tags: Immigration, Racial Justice
Posted in Press Releases
July 1, 2009
CONTACT:
Rachel Myers, ACLU, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org
Aadika Singh, RWG, (202) 296-2300 x 139; asingh@rightsworkinggroup.org
NEW YORK – Widespread racial profiling by law enforcement agents as a result of Bush-era policies remains a pervasive problem throughout the United States, according to a report out today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group (RWG). Government policies are a major cause of the disproportionate stopping and searching of racial minorities by law enforcement agencies, according to the report, which was submitted today to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
“Racial profiling remains a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the U.S., impacting the lives of millions of people in the African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, Arab and Muslim communities,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program and the main author of the report. “The U.S. government must take urgent, direct action to rid the nation of the scourge of racial and ethnic profiling and bring this country into conformity with both the Constitution and international human rights obligations.”
Today’s report came in response to a last-minute Bush administration submission to CERD in January 2009 that was plagued by omissions, deficiencies and mischaracterizations. In both its initial report to CERD in April 2007 and the follow-up submission in January, the Bush administration relied on the Justice Department’s 2003 “Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agents” to support claims the government was taking steps to eliminate racial profiling. However, that document doesn’t cover profiling based on religion or national origin, doesn’t apply to state or local law enforcement agencies and doesn’t include any mechanisms for enforcement or punishment for violating the recommendations. It also contains a blanket exception to the recommendations in cases of “national security” or “border integrity.”
As a result of U.S. reliance on the vague Justice Department guidance and other Bush policies, people of color have been disproportionately victimized through various government initiatives including FBI surveillance and questioning, special registration programs, border stops, immigration enforcement programs and the creation of “no fly lists,” according to today’s report.
“Instead of curbing racial profiling, the overbroad national security and border integrity exceptions in the Justice Department guidance have actually promoted profiling and created justification for state and local law enforcement agents to racially profile those who are or appear to be Arab, Muslim, South Asian or Latino,” said Margaret Huang, Executive Director of RWG. “We hope the Obama administration will fix the failed policies of the Bush administration and live up to its commitment to end racial profiling in the United States.”
Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that ending racial profiling is a “priority” for the Obama administration and that profiling is “simply not good law enforcement.” Today’s report from the ACLU and RWG calls on the Obama administration to fix Bush administration policies that led to pervasive racial profiling. It also calls on Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA), which would compel all law enforcement agencies to bar racial profiling, create and apply profiling procedures and document data on stop, search and arrest activities by race.
CERD is expected to consider the U.S. government’s follow up submission, the submission of the ACLU and RWG and the submissions of other civil and human rights organizations in its August session. CERD will then issue recommendations to the U.S. government regarding its human rights obligations under the treaty.
CERD is an independent group of experts that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a treaty signed and ratified by the U.S. in 1994. All levels of U.S. government are required to comply with the treaty’s provisions, which require countries to review national, state and local policies and to amend or repeal laws and regulations that create or perpetuate racial discrimination.
The ACLU and RWG’s report to CERD is available online at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/40055pub20090629.html
The Bush administration’s final submission to CERD is at: www.state.gov/documents/organization/113905.pdf
Tags: Criminal Justice Reform, Human Rights, Immigration, Racial Justice
Posted in Press Releases
April 14, 2009
CONTACT:
Nsombi Lambright at 601-573-3978 or nlambright@msaclu.org
The following can be attributed to Nsombi Lambright, Executive Director of the ACLU of Mississippi and Kristy Bennett, Staff Attorney, respectively, regarding the immigration raids which occurred in Laurel, Mississippi this week:
“Too many immigrants caught up in raids around the country have been transferred to detention centers and pressured into signing removal orders without being able to consult with counsel or family,” said Nsombi Lambright, Executive Director the ACLU of Mississippi. “It is time to end the cycle of unconstitutional raids and mass proceedings, and to act in accordance with the Constitution.” (Nsombi Lambright, Executive Director of the ACLU of Mississippi)”The Constitution of the United States guarantees due process and equal protection to all persons in the country, not just U.S. citizens. The raids conducted in Laurel, MS this week, resulting in the detention of over 800 people, are yet another example of the constant battle we face in this state to ensure that basic constitutional guarantees are afforded to all people. The ACLU of MS intends to closely monitor and investigate the situation in Laurel, and around the state, to ensure these fundamental rights are recognized and protected.” (Kristy Bennett, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Mississippi)
For more information about the work of the ACLU of Mississippi please visit www.msaclu.org and to learn about ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project go to www.aclu.org/immigrants.
Tags: Criminal Justice Reform, Human Rights, Immigration
Posted in Press Releases
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