Tell Cook County to Stand Behind ICE Detainer Ordinance
From the National Immigrant Justice Center:
Action Alert
Tell Cook County to Stay Strong on Immigration Detainer Ordinance
Five months ago, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance to keep taxpayers from picking up the tab for federal immigration enforcement. For years, the federal government has issued “detainers” that instruct local police to hold individuals after their authority has expired and until immigration agents can take custody, costing Cook County residents millions of dollars each year.
The county board found that the vast majority of individuals held on detainers had only minor criminal charges, and that the federal detainer policy dissuaded immigrant victims and witnesses from stepping forward to report crimes.
The county ordinance is a good policy that protects public safety and reserves limited law enforcement resources.
But the board is now rethinking its vote.
Why is the Board reconsidering the ordinance?
U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and the media are exploiting one family’s tragic loss to fuel anti-immigrant fear and strong-arm Cook County into paying for federal immigration enforcement.
Saul Chavez killed Chicagoan William McCann while driving drunk last summer. A Cook County judge gave Chavez, an undocumented immigrant with a DUI conviction, an uncharacteristically low bond, which Chavez paid. Chavez has since disappeared, and officials suspect he returned to Mexico.
The McCann family deserves justice, but the solution does not lie in the detainer ordinance. Here’s the problem: had Cook County honored ICE’s detainer request, Chavez would have been deported to Mexico within a matter of weeks. He would have never made it to a criminal trial. He would not have served a criminal sentence. Justice would not have been served.
This Thursday, the Cook County Board will hear testimony and they need to hear from you! They may vote to amend the ordinance, costing Cook County taxpayers millions of dollars and harming immigrant communities who help local police keep criminals off the streets.
Tell the Board that immigrants are not scapegoats for a broken criminal justice system. Stand behind the immigration detainer ordinance.
Thank you for speaking out.
Sincerely,
Tara Tidwell Cullen
National Immigrant Justice Center
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