New research shows that Amazon is helping ICE track, detain, and deport immigrants -- in a big way. We've known that Amazon's servers host Palantir, the company that provides ICE with “mission-critical services,” such as its case management software, and we've been pressuring Amazon to drop Palantir. But it turns out Amazon's role in the deportation machine goes deeper than that. Through intense lobbying of policymakers and law enforcement officials, Amazon and Palantir have secured a role as the backbone for the federal government’s immigration and law enforcement dragnet, allowing them to pursue multi-billion dollar government contracts in various agencies at every single level of law enforcement. These systems are new, and dangerous in new ways. They are accumulating unprecedented amounts of data (everything from facial scans to social media content), and exchanging information among city, state, and regional law enforcement systems, as well as some foreign governments, for the purpose of finding, deporting, and detaining immigrants. DHS and many other law enforcement agencies are spending billions of taxpayer dollars on these tech systems -- and Amazon, Palantir and other tech companies are pushing them to go further. It's time to hold Amazon accountable for its outsized share in building the deportation machine, and demand that they stop. It won't be easy -- Amazon makes billions from these contracts. But the company also depends on consumers -- including millions of Latinx people -- and has to worry about protecting its brand. Recently, the company was forced to raise its minimum wage to $15/hour, which wouldn't have happened without a major campaign demanding it. We can force Amazon to stop helping DHS and ICE target immigrants, if enough of us call them out, stay engaged, and keep the pressure on.

For 17 years the Cardona/Dunoyer family have lived in the United States after fleeing from their home country due to threats from Columbian guerilla groups. As of March 2017, Consuelo Cardona, Roberto Dunoyer, along with their sons Pablo (age 19), and Camilo (age 16) became the beneficiaries of a private immigration bill, HR 1490. It remains pending as of today. The family has no criminal record. Camilo Dunoyer recently graduated high school and is attending community college in San Diego. Pablo Dunoyer is scheduled to graduate college with his Associate's Degree and has been accepted to the University of San Diego to continue his education. If they are deported they will lose everything that they have worked hard for and their lives will be at risk.

Lopez has been a staunch supporter of criminalization of immigrants and communities of color, consistently advocating in favor of increasing policing, increasing jail time, and opposing changes to Chicago's Sanctuary city policy, the Welcoming City Ordinance. Today it was revealed that for several years he has been taking thousands of dollars from GEO group, the private corporation that owns immigrant detention centers around the country, including where parents of the children separated at the border are housed. Lopez is the Alderman for Chicago's 15th ward, a mixed ward with many Latinx and Black residents, who are constantly over-policed and criminalized. His ward is also the site of several immigration raids targeting residents based on the faulty Chicago Gang Database.

Around the country communities and elected officials are calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that conducts immigration raids violating people's civil and human rights. As we continue this fight at the federal level, there are clear policies that could be passed in our city to take away the hold that ICE has on immigrant communities and abolish it from our city. The Welcoming City Ordinance, the ordinance that delineates how Chicago interacts with ICE, still allows for communication and collaboration in a set of broad cases - when people have been accused of a felony (regardless of whether they have been convicted), when someone has been convicted of any felony at any point in their life, and when someone has been added to Chicago's flawed gang database. These carveouts are not a matter of public safety, rather of politics. In addition, the Chicago Gang Database, which contains the names of 128,000 adults who are mostly Black and some Latinx, is consistently shared with federal agencies, including ICE, leading to immigration raids in the homes of people whose names are on the list. If Chicago elected officials are serious about the call to #AbolishICE, they must first commit to take action on local policies that address the city's relationship to ICE and policing of immigrant communities and communities of color.

On July 6th, 2018, Mayor Woodards stated, “I vow that I will continue to fight for the health, safety and success of immigrants and refugees.” At the same time, the City of Tacoma is building a fence to prevent activists from calling attention to human rights abuses at the NWDC. The fence is merely a symptom of the disease of detention and deportation that the city facilitates. This reveals the contradiction in Tacoma City government. How can Tacoma call itself a “Welcoming City” with people who fight for the health and safety of immigrants when city government fails to enforce health and safety regulations at the detention center? We say that it cannot. Amid long-term issues regarding a lack of nutritious food, clean clothes and drinkable water, the NWDC is right now experiencing a health crisis -- a chickenpox outbreak. GEO Group’s failure to manage the health and safety of the people there is currently on display, as even US Representative Derek Kilmer was unable to visit to investigate conditions due to health concerns in June 2018. El 6 de julio la Alcaldesa Woodwards dijo “Me comprometo a seguir luchando por la salud, seguridad y éxito de inmigrantes y refugiados.” Al mismo tiempo la Ciudad de Tacoma está construyendo una barda para prevenir que lxs activistas sigan llamando la atención a los abusos a los derechos humanos en NWDC. La barda es sólo un síntoma de la enfermedad de la detención y deportación que la ciudad permite. ¿Cómo puede Tacoma autodenominarse una “Ciudad Acogedora” con la gente quien lucha por la salud y seguridad de inmigrantes, cuando el gobierno de la ciudad fracasa en enforzar las regulaciones de salud y seguridad en el centro de detención? Nosotrxs decimos que no puede. Entre varios preocupaciones que han ocurrido por mucho tiempo con respecto a la falta de comida nutritiva, ropa limpia y agua potable, en el NWDC hay una crisis de salud - un brote de varicela. Es obvio que el Geo Group ha fracasado en manejar la salud y la seguridad de la gente, como el representante Derek Kilmer no lo dejaron entrar a investigar las condiciones debido a las preocupaciones de salud en junio del presente año.

For the past two months our Latinx migrant community has experienced tremendous amounts of physical and emotional trauma. Thousands of migrants have arrived at the U.S. border after traveling through several countries to ask for asylum, only to be denied entry. They find themselves in despair and limbo, overwhelmed by the thought of the long treacherous journey back home. For the thousands who have been able to enter, they have been captured and imprisoned. Unjustly criminalized, they face charges that will forever impact their ability to live in the U.S. free from fear and persecution. Their children have been forcibly taken from them and incarcerated in migrant prisons across the country. We have yet to understand the emotional and physical toll of this latest assault on our community. For over twenty years, migrant adults have been mandatorily detained with countless accounts of abuse and death, including the detention of entire families (American Civil Liberties Union, 2016). This crisis, though not new, has taken a new form of brutality—to incarcerate children and youth by the thousands. For years, unaccompanied minors have been incarcerated for months at a time. Few in the U.S. are aware that a growing number of migrant youth are being locked up in detention, accused of gang affiliation. We are deeply concerned to learn that medical staff, including mental health professionals, are being used as tools of the state to further control and oppress these children and youth (Nilsen, 2018). The Trump administration continues to fund and funnel children newly separated from their parents to Shiloh Treatment Center in Texas. Shiloh was recently sued by the Center for Constitutional and Human Rights for administering a cocktail of psychotropic medications, including antipsychotics with limited FDA approval. It has been found that these drugs have had severe effects on the bodies of the unaccompanied minors being held in these detention centers (Reuters, 2018.) Migrant youth and children are suffering detained across the country. At the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Virginia, youth as young as 14 years old say they were beaten while handcuffed and left shivering naked in solitary confinement (AP, 2018). Recent victims of the current zero-tolerance policy are showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors throughout the state of New York who have treated migrant children say many of them have begun to hear voices after being separated from their parents and detained. Additionally, a recent investigation showed that therapy notes of counselors working with detained children are being used in court to further criminalize and incarcerate them (Nilsen, Vox). We denounce this unethical practice by the Trump Administration. As Latinx mental health practitioners, we will not to be used as tools of oppression nor will we sit idle as our communities are caged, abused and traumatized. The photo and video images of children crying, standing by U.S. Border Patrol Officers and their mothers as well as the audio of dozens of children screaming in tears asking desperately for their parents, has created tremendous grief and anxiety among Latinx living in this country. The levels of dehumanization and violence we are exposed to on a daily basis can cause secondary trauma at a mass collective scale. Millions of people in our communities are migrants who are undocumented. Many of us have lived in fear for years. Many of us have suffered abuse at the hands of police and ICE agents. Many of us have been in deportation proceedings or have served time inside migrant prisons. These images in the media are haunting reminders wreaking havoc on our nervous systems. American Civil Liberties Union, D. W. (2016, February). detentionwatchnetwork.org. Retrieved from www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/reports/fatal%20Neglect%20ACLU-DWN-NIJC-pdf AP. (2018, June 21). www.cnbc.com. Retrieved from cnbc.com: www.cnbc.com/2018/06/21/young-immigrants-detained-in-virginia-center-allege-abuse.html Nilsen, E. (n.d.). Vox. (K. w. them., Ed.) Retrieved from Vox.com: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/18/17449150/family-separation-policy-immigration-dhs.orr-health-records-undocumented-kids Reuters. (June, 21 2018). NBC News. Retrieved from nbcnews.com: https://nbcnews.com/health/kids/u-s-centers-force-migrant-children-take-drugs-lawsuit-n885386

Today news broke that the Trump administration is significantly escalating its “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to immigrants seeking refuge in the U.S. and plan to introduce a “fast-track” mass prosecution program. Akin to the already existent Operation Streamline in southern Texas and Arizona, the program means that immigrants will be moved through the criminal system in mass hearings, from arraignment to sentencing - up to 150 migrants per day - in just a few hours. From children being torn apart from their parents to chained groups of people being prosecuted en masse it is clear we have a human rights crisis. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is throwing the book at people without regard or discretion and this latest move will exponentially increase family separation and the prosecution and incarceration of migrants simply for the act of migration. This in addition to more money going to fund sentencing and private prisons.

On May 7, 2018, Luis was arrested by the Town of Cicero police after an altercation with his friend. Now he is at risk of deportation. A few hours after the police arrested Luis, they turned him over to ICE who took him to a detention center a few hours from Chicago. Luis is currently detained and is now in removal proceedings. He is the primary caretaker of his three children and has lived in the U.S. for more than 14 years. The details of his arrest do not negate the fact that Luis has established a life here and deserves to remain here with his family! Officials at the Town of Cicero have publicly claimed that the suburb, located to the west of Chicago, does not turn people over to ICE and have cited a 2008 resolution as proof that the Town is a “sanctuary” suburb. Yet Town officials turned Luis over to ICE even after Luis was given a $150 bond to walk free. Luis is now in deportation proceedings and at risk of being separated from his children, his family, and his community. Luis is a fun and caring father who loves taking his daughters to the park. He works selling carpets to financially support his three daughters and to send money on a weekly basis to his family. He loves sports especially baseball and has even coached adult soccer teams for fun. The Town of Cicero, IL should not have turned Luis over to ICE, help us stop his deportation by signing this petition!

Lulú Martinez has been fighting alongside her community for nearly a decade, and has been a part of significant actions demanding dignity for the immigrant community. In 2013, Lulú took part of the DREAM 9 action where she and a group of other young people left the country and re-entered seeking asylum. The DREAM 9 action directed attention to harmful immigration and border policies as well as helped uncovered dangerous conditions in detention centers. Five years later, Lulú is still going to court for her asylum case. Lulú has risked a lot in the actions she has taken, and now it is time for her community to show up and demand justice for Lulú.

Since Alejandra was released from detention she has worked to advocate for human and civil rights, dedicating her life to organizing for reproductive rights and the rights of immigrants. She is an active member of Mijente, a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and works as a Field Coordinator for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, where she organizes to raise the voices of Latinas in Virginia for policy change at all levels of government on issues that impact their lives, women’s health care, and other social justice issues. Alejandra is yet another name added to the growing list of immigrant rights and human rights defenders in the United States who have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. She was released from immigration detention by a judge at Eloy Detention Center on April 18th, 2018, but continues to be in deportation proceedings. Getting a pardon from Governor Ducey would significantly increase her chances to be able to stop her deportation and allow her to stay home.

(EN ESPAÑOL ABAJO) Rosa del Carmen Ortez-Cruz came to the U.S. from Honduras in 2002, fleeing extreme domestic violence – she was stabbed multiple times by a former partner, spending over a month in the hospital at age 19. She is the mother of four children, three of whom are U.S. citizens. Not only is Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in the world, but Rosa cannot return because her abuser has threatened her life. Despite the fact that immigration courts recognized that Rosa fled Honduras to save her life, the courts ultimately denied her case, effectively sentencing her to the hands of her abuser if she were deported to Honduras. Church of Reconciliation (Presbyterian Church USA) and Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship (Mennonite Church USA) have offered sanctuary to Rosa while her attorney fights for her life in court, with support from AFSC/Siembra NC. Join your voice to ours as we together call upon ICE to allow Rosa to stay in the United States, where she can live without fear of further abuse. —- Rosa del Carmen Ortez-Cruz vino a los Estados Unidos desde Honduras en 2002, huyendo de la violencia doméstica extrema: fue apuñalada en múltiples ocasiones por una ex pareja, pasó más de un mes en el hospital a los 19 años. Es madre de cuatro hijos, tres de los cuales son ciudadanos estadounidenses. Honduras no solo es uno de los países más peligrosos del mundo, sino que Rosa no puede regresar porque su abusador ha amenazado su vida. A pesar de que los tribunales de inmigración reconocieron que Rosa huyó de Honduras para salvar su vida, los tribunales en última instancia negaron su caso, efectivamente sentenciándola a manos de su abusador si era deportada a Honduras. La Iglesia de la Reconciliación (Iglesia Presbiteriana de los Estados Unidos.) Y la Hermandad Menonita de Chapel Hill (Iglesia Menonita de Estados Unidos) han ofrecido refugio a Rosa mientras su abogado lucha por su vida en el tribunal, con apoyo de AFSC/Siembra NC. Une tu voz a la nuestra mientras juntos exigimos a ICE permitir que Rosa se quede en los Estados Unidos, donde puede vivir sin temor a nuevos abusos.

This week Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress to answer questions about Facebook's’ role in the 2016 election, and how the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to personal information on 87 million Facebook users. He apologized and committed to taking steps to protect user privacy. But real reform begins with cleaning house. Yet, Peter Thiel, founder and owner of Palantir, is a key member of Facebook’s Board of Directors. Palantir is the data company that helped Cambridge Analytica find ways to collect people’s information on Facebook. It has been reported that a Palantir staffer “produced the idea to harvest Facebook user data” to begin with. Palantir also created and manages the data processing and surveillance program that ICE uses to create “target lists” for their home and workplace raids. They are the technology firm behind Trump’s increase in arrests and deportations. If Facebook wants to be taken seriously in their efforts to protect our data, privacy, and rights they need to start with kicking Peter Thiel off their Board of Directors.