Torn Apart: On the Road from New York to Jamaica

Deportation often results in tragic effects on families who are torn apart. From Colorlines Magazine:

ColorLines magazine went on the road from New York to Jamaica this summer to investigate the collateral effects of deportation on immigrant communities. The resulting Torn Apart article series and multimedia project is being released today at http://www.colorlines.com/tornapart.

Earlier this month, Obama administration officials announced plans to reform immigrant detention policy, ostensibly to make improvements to the broken system. The New York Times reported on the detention framework’s serious flaws, namely that people who have committed no crime are being swept up into the system and locked away in detention. Meanwhile the 287(g) program begun under President Bush and continued by President Obama has come under fire for widespread abuses.

Harsh immigration policy, compounded by systemic inequities built into the criminal justice system, might not be thwarting terrorists or making our country a whole lot safer. But the laws are doing a great job of breaking up another entity: families of color. This broken immigration system inflicts as much harm on Black immigrants as other immigrants of color.

“Immigrants face de facto double jeopardy,” says Torn Apart coauthor Julianne Ong Hing. “Even legal residents caught in the criminal justice system for the most minor crimes are vulnerable to deportation. After their criminal cases end, immigrants are subject to the civil procedures of immigration courts. Deportation follows incarceration.”

Visit http://colorlines.com/tornapart today for the Torn Apart article series, video, photo essay, and more.

A separate written piece can be found here:
http://colorlines.com/article.php?ID=624

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