Immigrant Rights

No one should be locked up because they don’t have the money to buy their freedom. But this is the plight of countless men and women currently imprisoned in our immigration detention system.

In Cambodian Boys Don’t Cry, Rasmey Sam speaks about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime and how fortunate he feels being able to attend Cal State San Bernadino. He reflects on how formative those years had been for him, and how he was happy to be able to rebuild his life in the United States.

The ACLU and other advocates for immigrant rights are challenging the lack of due process for individuals who are subject to mandatory detention while the government brings deportation cases against them for past crimes. These people are often longtime legal residents, rehabilitated and leading productive lives in their communities. It is unlawful and unjust for the government to keep them locked up with no opportunity to prove eligibility for release or bond.

According to a new note to a Rule of Professional Conduct approved by the Washington Supreme Court recently, attorneys cannot use a person’s immigration status to intimidate, coerce or obstruct that person for reasons unrelated to a civil case.

On an unusually warm and sunny May 1st, I gathered with ACLU of Washington coworkers and supporters at Judkins Park in Seattle’s Central District, joining with thousands of others to participate in the annual May Day march.  The march began here in Washington 13 years ago as a day of advocacy for worker and immigration rights, and it continues to provide a safe and supportive forum for individuals to tell their stories and publicly express their support.

Is respect for immigrants’ rights patriotic?  Yes, indeed, and now this has been recognized by no less an authority than the Washington Supreme Court.  In its recent unanimous ruling in the case In re Discipline of McGrath, the Court included this powerful statement:

Martin Niemoller’s well-known insight (“first they came for the Socialists, I was not one… when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up”) affirms the urgency of speaking out against torture and seeking remedy for torture victims and survivors around the world. To speak out against organized harm requires courageous naming, as observed by writer and rights advocate Marge Piercy, who wrote that “we must name the giant in whose belly we are chained.”