At ALC, we believe our state of California should strengthen families and communities, not tear them apart. That’s why our Criminal Justice Reform program collaborates with partners across the state to challenge transfers from state prison and local jails to immigration detention—one form of systemic racism that has inflicted tremendous suffering on California immigrant and refugee families.
The VISION Act (AB 937), authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, would protect community members who have already been deemed eligible for release from being transferred by local jails and our state prison system to immigration detention. This process—called ICE transfers and explained by Yuri Kochiyama Fellow Chanthon Bun—is the heartbreaking reality for so many immigrant community members.
Imagine finishing your sentence in prison and thinking you will be able to return home to your loved ones, only to be re-shackled by ICE or a private ICE subcontractor, transported thousands of miles away, and threatened with being sent to a country you’ve never called home.
Our team has been working to sever the local jail and prison to ICE pipeline since 2008, but throughout 2020, attention on the issue has grown. The stories of community members like Kao Saelee and Phi Pham, incarcerated firefighters who were transferred to ICE custody after serving their time, have drawn people into the movement from across the state and the nation. Over 200,000 people signed a petition last October in support of Kao and urging Governor Newsom to halt to ICE transfers.
Not only are ICE transfers devastating to families, they’re a waste of taxpayer dollars. The Alliance for Boys and Men of Color estimates that transfers to ICE of people eligible for release from local jails alone cost $7.3 million dollars in 2018 to 2019. Our local and state tax dollars should not be used to subject immigrants and refugees to double punishment, violate Constitutional protections, and separate immigrant families.
As the VISION Act moves through the California legislature, our team has held rallies, call-ins and met with countless legislators and their staff. A recent UC San Diego poll found that 80% of California voters support the VISION Act and believe state prisons and local jails should not hand over immigrants who have earned release to ICE. The legislation has received tremendous support from the Black Legislative Caucus, the Latino Legislative Caucus, the API Legislative Caucus, numerous city and county governments, the California Labor Federation and other labor unions, and over 180 community organizations, among others. City and county governments, as well as district attorneys of Los Angeles and San Francisco, have called attention to how ICE transfers harm their communities.
Health experts, faith leaders, elected officials, family members of incarcerated Californians, and a significant majority of voters all agree that it’s time to end ICE transfers once and for all by making the VISION Act law.
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