Defeat the Grassley Gang Amendment

From the Southeast Asian Refugee Action Center

ACTION ALERT
CALL OR TWEET YOUR SENATORS TODAY
Tell your Senators to oppose Grassley Amendment #1299, gang deportation and legalization ineligibility provisions for suspected gang members. This same amendment was previously struck down in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but will be possibly reconsidered on the Senate floor today, Thursday, June 20.

This amendment will further increase racial profiling, increase targeting of youth of color, and lead to the separation of families.

CALL or TWEET your Senator today (Thursday, June 20) and tell them you Oppose Grassley Amendment #1299.

1. Call 1-888-891-3271 for the Congress Switchboard.

2. Tweet your Senator with #NOonGrassley1299. Visit http://www.govsm.com/w/Senate to find Twitter information for your Senator. Senators are listed in alphabetical order by state.

Sample Script:
“My name is _______, and I am calling to ask Senator_____ to oppose the Grassley Amendment #1299 that relates to suspected gang membership because. This amendment would punish mere “membership,” and is nothing more than guilt by association. There is no way to challenge the evidence being used to prove membership and it unfairly places the burden on the noncitizen to prove that he should not have known that the organization was a gang. This will lead to racial profiling, the increased targeting of youth and further separation of families. The S. 744 provisions are already too harsh and unfair.

What does Grassley #1299 amendment do?
This amendment replaces and worsens the already punitive and unfair Senate bill’s 744 provisions regarding gang membership disqualification bars to legalization and deportation for those with lawful status by creating a new broad definition of criminal street gang and substantially increasing the burden of proof on a person to prove he did not know or reasonably should have known about the gang. A person would be permanently blocked from legal status and/or deported if the person falls within this new amendment. This amendment will target people who never committed any crimes whatsoever and who have obeyed all of our laws. The Los Angeles Times editorial board criticized the far–reaching provisions of this amendment.

Why is this amendment bad?
– This amendment would be disastrous for youth, particularly for youth of color and those who live in communities with a high concentration of gangs.

– This kind of dragnet approach targets the wrong people and risks deporting and separating from their families individuals who are not gang members. Young people living in “bad” neighborhoods will certainly be vulnerable.  Moreover, these provisions do not adequately protect people who have left gangs and have stable and productive lives.

– This proposal will target people based on accusations of criminal activity without any proof that a person has engaged in any wrongdoing.

– This proposal imposes guilt by association and collective punishment by targeting people not for their own individual culpable conduct, but for their associations with groups considered to be dangerous. For example, this provision could impact a person who resides with or associates with a family member known to be in a gang or lives in a neighborhood where there is a high concentration of gangs.

– This proposal will likely exacerbate racial profiling and bad police practices because the Department of Homeland Security will likely rely on heavily criticized gang databases or gang injunctions to assess membership or gang activity. Often, these law enforcement tools label a person as a “gang member” for living in a neighborhood where there is a high concentration of gangs or living with a family member who is a gang member.

– These proposals make it very difficult to challenge and correct mistakes of misidentification. Gang databases face mounting criticism for their use of inconsistent definitions, improper documentation procedures and inadequate review. A person can be in a gang database without ever knowing about it, and most gang databases do not have accessible mechanisms for individuals to be removed from the database.

– These proposals diminish public safety in communities that experience gang violence. Individuals will be less likely to report crimes and gang violence in their communities because they will fear that any interaction with law enforcement will lead to deportation.

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