Rights Groups to ICE: Stop Raids for Census

New America Media reports that immigrant rights advocates have sent a letter to President Barack Obama and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano asking them to immediately suspend all immigration enforcement activities through the end of the year in order to decrease fear within immigrant communities and encourage their participation in the 2010 Census. Questionnaires for the 2010 Census are due to arrive in the mailbox of every U.S. household between now and April 1. The letter, which was signed by more than 200 organizations nationwide, calls for the suspension of more than a dozen specific enforcement activities operated through DHS, including immigration raids on homes and workplaces.  Similar measures, the letter said, were pursued during the 1990 Census.

KJ