500 signatures reached
To: Gil Cisneros, 39th District Candidate
39th District Candidate, Gil Cisneros: Pledge to Abolish ICE, Decriminalize Migration
Immigrant communities and our allies in the 39th Congressional District demand that candidate Gil Cisneros make a pledge to #AbolishICE and decriminalize migration.
Why is this important?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) exists to target, imprison, and deport im-migrants. Imprisoning and exiling people for the benefit of large private prison companies are the agency’s sole reason for being. Reforming ICE, as candidate Cisneros currently proposes, is a policy prescription blind to the fact that criminalizing and persecuting im-migrants is the core function of ICE, a fact that has ensured a continuation of human rights abuses by the agency under Republican and Democratic administrations.
Movement is already underway: several Democratic Congress members and candidates have already come out in favor of abolishing the agency and have received much support. This is the type of transformational leadership that our communities need. We cannot allow an agency that promulgates xenophobia and racism to run amok in our neighborhoods. During President Obama’s tenure, more im-migrants were deported and stripped from their families than during any other president’s tenure in US history; and when an agency like ICE is at the fingertips of a tyrant, elected or not, the situation will be even worse.
ICE was created post-9/11, is a mere fourteen years old, and has a total lack of transparency and accountability unless the people speak out against its unjust actions. ICE was created to view im-migrants as a threat rather than an important and necessary segment of our communities. Now the agency has over 20,000 employees and a budget of approximately six billion dollars, resources that could be much better spent to benefit district 39 residents in other areas, such as employment and education.
As residents and voters in the 39th District we deserve leaders that aspire to be change agents during these critical times. Therefore, we urge candidate Gil Cisneros to make a pledge to #AbolishICE and decriminalize migration.
Movement is already underway: several Democratic Congress members and candidates have already come out in favor of abolishing the agency and have received much support. This is the type of transformational leadership that our communities need. We cannot allow an agency that promulgates xenophobia and racism to run amok in our neighborhoods. During President Obama’s tenure, more im-migrants were deported and stripped from their families than during any other president’s tenure in US history; and when an agency like ICE is at the fingertips of a tyrant, elected or not, the situation will be even worse.
ICE was created post-9/11, is a mere fourteen years old, and has a total lack of transparency and accountability unless the people speak out against its unjust actions. ICE was created to view im-migrants as a threat rather than an important and necessary segment of our communities. Now the agency has over 20,000 employees and a budget of approximately six billion dollars, resources that could be much better spent to benefit district 39 residents in other areas, such as employment and education.
As residents and voters in the 39th District we deserve leaders that aspire to be change agents during these critical times. Therefore, we urge candidate Gil Cisneros to make a pledge to #AbolishICE and decriminalize migration.