On Thursday, November 10th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Antonio notified the Karnes Pro Bono Project that crayons for children were no longer allowed in the visitation area of the Karnes Family Detention Center. ICE claims that this rule is a response to children “defacing” interview rooms with coloring which has “caused property damage to the contractor.” That contractor, of course, is the GEO Group, a private prison company that has earned over $57 million in profits from the Karnes Family Detention Center. Treating a child’s color markings as “destruction of property” is altogether inappropriate. And such markings are a cost that comes with the detention of children. It is extremely disturbing that ICE’s concern for GEO’s property takes precedence over the well being of the children and their mothers’ rights to legal advice. If ICE is detaining children, at the very least, they should allow those children to act like children. "I really like to draw flowers and then I give them to my Mom to make her happy. Shes very sad and I know the flowers help her not be so sad." - 5 year old girl detained in Karnes "The kids need to develop their imaginations. Sometimes what they can’t express in words they can begin to confront through drawings." - Mom detained in Karnes "They are too young to read and if they just play can get too rowdy. We don't always want them with us [when we speak to the attorneys] because some of the things we share we don't want them to hear." - Mom detained in Karnes

We support our friends, co-workers, and neighbors who have been attacked and scapegoated by Trump. We will defend the Muslim, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, undocumented, women, Jewish, and immigrant members of our community, and we will not let Trump or his white Supremacist appointees separate us.

In Maricopa County, the Sheriff is in charge of guarding the ballots. The DOJ shouldn't let him do it unwatched. Historic voter registration deserves historic protection of democracy. More than 150,000 people registered to be new voters and will seek to cast their ballot against Arpaio for the first time. Groups across the area are doing their part for a successful election and the Department of Justice needs to do the same. For the first time in years, the Department of Justice announced that it won't send federal monitors to the County where Trump ally and criminally-charged Sheriff Arpaio is running for re-election. The Department's decision to be absent is a dangerous one given that the Sheriff is the one in charge of guarding the ballots cast on election day. The County recorder has already gotten caught sending out wrong polling information in one instance. And local polling became a national embarrassment during the primaries when fewer locations led to hours-long lines.

Sarai (name changed to protect her identity) fled to the United States with her 2 year old daughter after more than 13 years of severe domestic violence in Honduras. The family was initially detained in Dilley Family Detention Center and was then transferred to Berks Detention Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania where they have been detained for months. The family has a pending appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals and the daughter has a pending application for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Despite DHS Secretary Johnson’s claim that they are not deporting families with pending relief, ICE attempted to deport Sarai and her daughter on Thursday evening. Sarai bravely resisted, fearing that her life would be at stake if returned. The following day, ICE tricked Sarai and told her that her attorneys had requested to see her, yet they took the family and flew them to San Antonio. Sarai and her daughter arrived at Karnes Family Detention Center at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 15th. This is the third detention center for this mother and young child in the past 4 months. The family’s attorneys were not notified prior to the transfer and for hours were completely unaware of where this family had been taken. Since arriving in Karnes, Sarai’s daughter has not received any treatment for her anemia. This family could be deported at any moment! They have multiple forms of immigration relief pending, yet ICE seems to be doing everything in their power to remove this family against their will and hinder their ability to effectively communicate with their attorneys. We demand the deportation be stopped immediately and this family be released so they can pursue their immigration claims outside of detention.

Jaime Fernando Arceno Hernandez is a 19 year-old young man from Doraville, Georgia. He migrated to the United States on his own at the age of 16, in order to escape violence, including one assassination attempt. Jaime was put in deportation proceedings when he first crossed the border, and had been attending his immigration check-ins consistently, while he and his mother thought an attorney was filing a request for asylum. But on December 8, 2015, when he went to his immigration check-in, he was detained and not allowed to go back home with his mother. It was not until after Jaime was detained that his family realized the attorney had cheated them and taken their money, without filing anything on their behalf. Instead, the attorney had allowed Jaime to be ordered deported, without telling Jaime or his mother. On January 19, 2016 Jaime was transferred from Irwin Detention Center to the Atlanta ICE Field Office, where he was pressured to sign his own deportation papers. But he refused stating that he had an attorney and he would not sign anything until he could speak to him. ICE eventually sent him back to Irwin Detention Center. The next day Jaime was taken to the Atlanta International Airport. Again, was told he should sign his deportation, which he refused. But ICE tried to put him on a plane anyway, without any travel documents. He was eventually sent back to Irwin Detention Center. Currently Jaime has an asylum case and a T visa application pending. He has been in detention for 14 months now, which is a ridiculous amount of time for a young man with no criminal record and who was in High School when he was detained. Please sign the petition to urge ICE to release Jaime from detention so that he can be reunited with his mother while his cases are pending.

Irvin Francisco Pineda Mauricio is a Guatemalan man who arrived to the U.S in 2006; he is a husband, a hard worker, and a father. Four years ago he was pulled over by Hall County police in Georgia for driving 5 miles over the speed limit. When his family arrived to pay the bond, ICE agents were already at the county jail and he was transferred to an immigration detention center to be processed for deportation. Irvin graduated as a teacher in his country of birth, a degree which he could not exercise when he moved to the U.S to find better ways to support his family. In 2010, Irvin met his wife Brenda, mother of a little boy who Irvin took as his own child. As a devoted stepfather and husband Irvin works two jobs to support his family locally and back in his home country. Irvin has been fighting his deportation for the last four years. With your help he was released from detention on October 13, 2015. He has been involved with GLAHR ever since his release. Irvin is always present in our Monday night meetings. If he detained and sent back to Guatemala our meetings and our group would never be the same. On October 13, 2016 he has a check-in with ICE Atlanta. We are asking the local field office to not detain Irvin and release him back to his family and community. His wife Brenda is currently expecting and a separation from Irwin could have devastating consequences. Please sign this petition and demand that ICE Atlanta not separate Irvin from his DACA Recipient wife, and U.S. citizen step son.

Lizbeth Mateo is an undocumented law graduate and activist. She came to the United States with her family at that age of 14 and enrolled in high school right away, where she quickly learned English. Lizbeth always had her eye on higher education, but knew that her undocumented status would present challenges to her and students like her. So, Lizbeth began organizing, working with other youth, school administrators, and community members to fight for the rights of the undocumented community. Lizbeth was one of the first undocumented youth to risk deportation, to demand the immediate passage of the Dream Act, when she was arrested for stating a sit in inside Senator McCain’s office in 2010. Despite the failure of the Dream Act, Lizbeth continued her work with the immigrant community. But she knew the pain of so many young people who had been forced to return to Mexico due to family separation, so in 2013 Lizbeth left the country briefly, traveled to Mexico as part of the Bring Them Home campaign, and returned with eight other youth. The Dream 9, as they came to be known, demanded to be allowed to return home to their families and called for immediate family reunification. Lizbeth and the Dream 9 were allowed to return home after 17 days in detention. Lizbeth returned home just in time to attend Santa Clara University School of Law, from where she graduated this past May. Since she applied for DACA in October 2015, USCIS has sent Lizbeth not one but two letters of intent to deny due to her participation in the Bring Them Home campaign. The first letter came only days after her law school graduation. Lizbeth has received the support of several members of Congress, the Dean of Santa Clara Law, law professors, organizations, and community members. Denying Lizbeth’s request for DACA would send a message that political expression in support of immigrants’ rights will be punished. As professors, academic professionals, attorneys, and members of the community, we ask that USCIS reconsiders its Notice of Intent to Deny and grant Lizbeth’s DACA application.

Sergio Ledezma Caballero migrated to the US in 2003 to offer a better life for his family. After being racially profiled and stopped by the police in 2015, the better life Sergio was building for his family came to an abrupt halt. Sergio was separated from his family and sent to Eloy Detention Center, where he has been held for over a year. His wife, Adela, is extremely sick with a pulmonary embolism, which is causing blood clots, and his two sons need him desperately. We are asking for Sergio to be released based on humanitarian parole. Not knowing how to deal with Sergio’s case, Adela tried many things, she asked help from an attorney and was defrauded they gave her wrong information and asked her to sign fake documents at her home. It’s been one thing after another with this family, and now Adela’s illness is becoming more severe. Sergio and German are their sons. The oldest son Sergio plays football and is a sophomore in high school. He says it’s not fair to see such a hard working parent like his father be taken away; he can’t understand how these injustices happen. German, the youngest, says he misses playing basketball with his dad and wants his family reunited. Throughout all of this, the boys have felt alone not knowing how to best help their mother and are having to figure out how to take on parental roles at such a young age. The two boys really need a father right now, during their teenage years is one of the most important developmental years of a boy’s life. Although Adela is doing everything she can, she is suffering from deep vein thrombosis and was told by doctors to be in bed rest. Unfortunately she cannot rest as she is the sole provider for her family at this time and finds her health suffering and can not prioritize her needs. Knowing the stress of not having their father and the toll that it has taking on the family has made Adela become very stressed, which affects her health. Sergio should not be kept in Eloy any longer. Forcing Adela to be the sole income earner for the family puts not only her own life but her family’s on the line as well. Having her husband in detention is putting Adela at risk for heart and lung failure or death. This is a crisis. They need their father back home. We are asking people to please sign the petition to support the Ladezma family and tell the Enrique Lucero, ICE Director of Phoenix Arizona to release Sergio. He needs humanitarian parole now, his family depends upon it.

Miguel Alcudia is a dairy worker and leader of the Vermont based human rights organization Migrant Justice. Miguel became a community leader after his wages were stolen on a Vermont dairy farm where he lived and worked. He organized his co-workers to stand up to their abusive employer–and got involved with Migrant Justice. This experience inspired Miguel to be a leader in the Milk with Dignity campaign calling on large corporations to source their milk in compliance with the human rights of farmworkers. Miguel participated in the campaign to successfully secure a commitment from Ben & Jerry’s to join the Milk with Dignity Program. He has played a crucial role, as a farmworker spokesperson on Migrant Justice’s education team, educating other workers about their rights and raising awareness of the public at large about the plight of immigrant workers. Miguel has also participated in region-wide efforts to build connections between immigrant rights and racial justice movements. He is now an active leader of Migrant Justice’s farmworker Coordinating Committee--its main leadership body. But on September 22, as Miguel was leaving his farm his co-worker tipped him off that he was being followed by an unmarked police car. When he arrived in the town of Vergennes, VT, undercover agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him and took him into custody. Allegedly, Miguel came to the attention of ICE because his visa expired. In a conversation with Miguel’s attorney yesterday, an agent claimed that Mr. Alcudia had been targeted for arrest as a “2D priority” (“aliens who … have significantly abused the visa or visa waiver program”). However, under any reasonable interpretation, overstaying a visa should not be considered “significant abuse.” Miguel is currently detained at Strafford County House of Correction in New Hampshire with $21,000 bail. This is the second detention of a Migrant Justice leader in recent months. Both Victor Diaz and Miguel Alcudia are public leaders of Migrant Justice, a fact that was commented upon by ICE agents during both arrests. Furthermore, during yesterday’s arrest, ICE agents told Mr. Alcudia that another community leader, mentioning them by name, would be their next arrest. This clear and direct threat against a community leader on the basis of their public activities advocating for human rights is extremely troubling. Miguel has already received the support of pastors, labor leaders, university students, and hundreds of his fellow farmworkers. He is an important figure in his community and his continued detention does harm not only to Miguel but to the farmworker movement for human rights that he has led.

Gualberto is a one of the day laborers that was detained during a raid in Chicago. The raid is is yet another example of the ways our communities in Chicago are criminalized and forced to subject to invasive technologies and tactics used by police and ICE. We are organizing to release Gualberto and to demand an investigation and an end to these civil rights violations.

In January, Chicago ICE agents conducted two separate raids that led to the detention and immediate deportation of the Garcia family – Reynold Garcia, Karen Margarito-Pineda and their two children – an Illinois family living in the suburb of Palatine. In once instance, ICE agents showed up at the Garcia family’s apartment misrepresenting themselves as local police in order to enter the property. Without Karen’s consent they searched her home and in a disturbing sequence of events immigration agents interrogated one of her underage children without a warrant or her permission, in a clear violation of their civil rights. As a result of the home raid, Karen and her children were detained and eventually deported. Despite DHS policy that prohibits immigration raids in “sensitive” locations, including churches, less than 24hrs after detaining Reynold’s wife and children, ICE agents targeted him while he was at the Christian Pentecostal Center. In order to take Reynold into custody, immigration agents intercepted Noel Coria, Reynold and Karen’s housemate, and fabricated a false story. They took Noel’s phone and began messaging Reynold pretending to be his friend. The messages that Reynold received said that Noel was involved in a car accident. Consequently, Reynold called Noel but another person answered the phone. This individual stated that they were local police and needed Reynold to show up at the scene of the accident. After confirming that he was at the Christian Pentecostal Center, unmarked cars arrived to pick up Reynold, insisting that they were local police officers. Reynold boarded the car with these officers to later find out that they were ICE agents and that he was being detained. All four members of the Garcia family were deported, without the opportunity to fight their cases and denounce the egregious actions that resulted in their expulsion from the United States.

A mother is in desperate need of your help. 21 year-old has been in detention at Stewart Detention Center for a year and three months. Wilhen has an asylum claim, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement is refusing to release him. He has family in Duluth, Georgia that is willing to take care of him; he is not a flight risk because his entire family is here. Wilhen D. Hill Barrientos came to the United States with his 15year old sister on July 2015; they were apprehended by border patrol. His sister was eventually released to her mother who lives in Duluth, Georgia, but Wilhen has been detained for 1 year and three months. Judge Trimble will not make decision on the case because on his last court which took place on, December 15, 2015 the audio was defective, and a result there needs to be another court date, but while this is happening Wilhen continues to be in detention. Judge Trimble wants to re-do the entire case. We are asking for help from the community to put pressure on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Wilhen while his case is being processed. Release Wilhen from detention!