The post What We Heard in Costa Mesa: Elevating Latino Voices Through Participatory Research appeared first on Resilience OC.

As Resilience Orange County, we are an organization who values and dedicates our work towards young people, queer, undocumented, migrant, and formerly and currently incarcerated folks. We stand in solidarity with our communities of color, especially during these times of crisis. 

Since its inception, the U.S. Constitution has been a tool for white supremacy that has inflicted state sanctioned violence in our communities through efforts to police, criminalize, incarcerate and separate families.Our current administration has sided time and time again with white supremist values and has prided itself on seeking to push forward a xenophobic and violent agenda to terrorize immigrant communities. The Trump administration’s careless actions in ending DACA, the increased militarization of the border, and the expansive use of Immigrant Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in our local jails all point to calculated efforts to destabilize our immigrant community. 

It is frustrating to see the goverment exploit our community of migrants and undocumented folks for its own benefit and to push its beliefs of capitalism and imperialism in the U.S and across the globe. Rather than supporting our vibrant immigrant community and many others who contribute so much to this country, we are shamefully scapegoated, targeted and dehumanized for trying to forge a better future for our families. And through all of this our communities continue to strive and flourish by supporting one another during these moments of crisis. We are a strong resilient community and we uphold our values and honor the shared humanity among each of us. 

We will not tolerate anti-immigrant attacks. We are tired of living in the shadows and tired of living a life with fear of deportation. We are strong, resilient communities that will fight and demand our basic human rights. We strongly believe our community deserves more.

We will continue to work towards building community and embracing our people power to radically transform all forms and structures of state-sanctioned violence. We ask you to join us!

We Believe the Following:

• Upending Systems of Oppression
  • We believe that prisons, detention centers, all forms of policing, and the criminal justice system are all rooted in systems of oppression and white supremacist violence, including racial, anti-trans/queer, sexual and gender-based violence. Therefore we seek to abolish and dismantle these systems of oppression and transform them into systems that generate positive possibilities for our communities.

• Defending the Criminalized
  • Our communities are not disposable. The War on Drugs taught us that people of color are disportionately and overly represented in the criminal (in)justice system. This is no mistake. The system was created to criminalize and dispose of latinx, queer, undocumented, trans, black, and community members with disabilities and mental health needs. We can not fall into the narrative “trap” that criminalizes our community members to fill their jails and detention centers. We’re here to fight for all!

• Abolish Detention Centers & Prisons
  • Our carceral system is a representation of power and oppression. We believe it is inhumane to keep human beings behind bars. You can not get well in a cell. Carceral policies and prisons/detention centers are harmful to the human spirit. 
  • GEO and CoreCivic are for-profit private prison companies who make millions from operating immigration detention centers like the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County. Any system or company that works towards the criminalization, incarceration, and profitability of our community should be abolished. 

• False Promises of Immigration Reform & Pathways to Citizenship
  • We believe that our U.S immigration system is purposefully broken and works to be racist, xenophobic, and violent. 
  • Creating an easier pathway for citizenship can be seen as positive reform, however it’s past attempts have often excluded part of our community including folks who are formerly incarcerated or currently incarcerated from receiving equal opportunity. We will not throw anyone under the bus to advance any agenda. We do not seek piecemeal approaches. We are here to fight for EVERYONE!

• DACA is Not the Ceiling
  • We believe that DACA is not a permanent immigration solution. To begin, DACA was not inclusive of all undocumented folx and excluded many members of our community. It is a good first half step to support the needs of our community. 
  • And while DACA is limited in its scope, the Supreme Court should uphold DACA as constitutional. 

• Human Rights are for Everyone
  • We strongly believe that our immigrant communities deserve basic human rights to Housing, Food, Safety, Dignity – everything essential needed to thrive in society 
  • We strongly believe that our immigrant community deserves the right to migrate regardless of borders.

The post Our Values in this Moment of Crisis appeared first on Resilience OC.

On Tuesday, February 25th, 2020, the Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN) held a press conference in Santa Ana in support of Celia, a community member who had a last check-in this morning and had asked for community-support in accompanying her. We gathered over 35 community members to support Celia to her walk-in. You can find out more about Celia’s case here. 

After the rally and check-in, Celia was granted an extension for another month. Community groups will gather again before the next check-in on March 31st. We’ll reach out about further supporting Celia leading up to her check-in next month.

While community groups were supporting Celia through the press conference and rally this morning, ICE was conducting immigration arrests across Santa Ana. So far we have confirmed three separate arrests across the city. The Santa Ana Police Department confirmed DHS was present in Santa Ana. 

We responded to two separate cases after the press conference in Santa Ana after community members reached out for support via the hotline and another who posted on social media. These community members defended their rights and prevented their arrests.

In one instance, ICE tried to arrest a community member at their home in the early morning while their family was home including their children. The family did not give in to ICE’s demands to open the door. In another instance, another community member was stopped while in their car on their way to work just down the street from the first attempted and failed arrest. In this second incident, ICE had cornered the community member in their car for nearly three hours until the media came and filmed the arrest at which point ICE fled the scene. We are further looking into a third case that was sent over text of an arrest that occurred this morning in Santa Ana as well. 

We are still piecing together the policy and advocacy implications of these arrests and how to best support the community members who reached out to us over the course of the day. To say the least, these cases indicate a small rise in immigration enforcement actions in Orange County in a single day since the launch of our hotline last summer. These trends today may also indicate additional arrests that we may not have yet identified, so sharing the hotline will help in reaching the larger Orange County community to identify if any other arrests occurred. Also please spread power, not panic. Accompanying and passing on Know Your Rights information is vital.

As always, we denounce all immigration arrests and ICE’s attempts to terrorize our community with the use of aggressive tactics including the use of intimidation, lies and ruses against community members to effectuate arrests. We stand by the community members impacted today and welcome your support in this process.

We are asking community members to assist us in the following ways:

1. Please distribute our OCRRN hotline number to community members. The Hotline is meant to verify ICE presence in Orange County so please ask clients or community members to call if they see ICE in our community. The number is (714) 881-1558. Trained first responders of the OCRRN verify if ICE has made an arrest and connect impacted community members to resources. Tracking these arrests helps us gather and identify immigration arrest trends impacting our region. We are also able to make appropriate referrals to community partners where possible.
2. Know Your Rights material proved helpful to the community members who confronted ICE this morning. Please share KYR information with families and friends when you can. 
3. The OC Rapid Response Network and other community partners are putting together a pop-up community forum in Townsend where one of the arrests occurred. We’re currently drafting a flyer for this event and will post on our Facebook soon.
4. Celia will have another check-in on March 31st. Please support and uplift her case as we push out opportunities for community members to plug-in including fundraisers, rallies, and press conferences.

Thank you to the OC Rapid Response team, first responders and community partners for coming together under these trying times.

Follow the OCRRN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OCRRN

The post Community Statement Regarding Immigration Arrests in Santa Ana appeared first on Resilience OC.

The program also enjoys broad support from likely voters in the city, a poll conducted in 2018 by America’s Survey Company and analyzed by UC San Diego professor Dr. Tom Wong found that 64.5% of Santa Ana voters support or strongly support it, with Democrat, Republican and Independent voters included in the survey.

The post Universal Representation appeared first on Resilience OC.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 21, 2018

Community Responds to ICE and GEO’s Plan to Expand Private Immigrant Prisons in California

Immigrant rights advocates denounce GEO and ICE’s back deal negotiations to massively expand private immigrant prisons in the state of California.

Immigration advocates, led by directly impacted and previously incarcerated community members of California, condemn and oppose any expansion of new and private immigration for-profit detention facilities in the state. Local and state groups call on California legislators to act now and protect California values.

Over the last few months the extent of collusion and conspiring between ICE and private prison corporations has grown more apparent, and has been confirmed by ICE’s attempt to search for immigrant detention space. Because of victories like the Dignity not Detention Act, ICE is no longer able to establish these contracts in secret as they’ve done in the past, and instead must start these illicit contracts via a public contracting process. Even so, ICE is an untrustworthy actor who will take every opportunity to broker its deals in the shadows.

The collusion that has taken place between those in the business of locking up immigrants and profiting off of their detention and misery must be exposed and confronted. California will not be home to the dehumanizing detention apparatus built by ICE, and our cities and local governments are not pawns to be used by the Florida based GEO Inc, in their plot to profit from incarceration in our state.

We will not be silent as GEO dispatches its CEO George Zoley to essentially bribe local city officials in a plot to expand the Adelanto and Mesa Verde detention facilities. This corporation, which reported revenues of 2.3 billion dollars in 2018, has been sued for participating in human trafficking and using what amounts to slave labor in their for-profit facilities. In addition, countless individuals have died under the custody of GEO and ICE. We will not turn a blind eye to this injustice nor will we shy away from confronting the cruel, degrading and sometimes deadly treatment of our community members.

Immigrant rights groups, as well as formerly and currently incarcerated community members are ready to fight back against policies of violence and private businesses who seek to target our community and undo and circumvent the legislative victories our community and advocates have accomplished. The plans laid out by ICE, and the deceptive tactics used by GEO to pursue detention expansion threaten the core of our state’s values.

Organizers across the state will rally to defend immigrant communities from threats of mass incarceration and deportation. We will defend the spirit and values that we hold dear as a state, including defending the Dignity Not Detention Act that ICE and GEO have attempted to undermine. Cities and Counties can move on this front too by limiting and zoning out any possibility for private prison expansion.

Signatories

Resilience Orange County

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance

Pangea Legal Services

California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice

SIREN (Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network)

Freedom for Immigrants

Filipino Advocates for Justice

Ground Game LA

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy

California Sanctuary Campaign

Alianza Sacramento

United Now For Immigrants Rights

Mesa Verde Liberation Front

Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Inc (CAB)

CAIR San Francisco Bay Area

We Rise SF / Labor Center for Immigrant Justice

Immigration Task Force of Monterey County

Rapid Response Network of Monterey County

Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance

Legal Services for Children

UNITE HERE! Local 483

STEP UP! Sacramento

Centro Legal de la Raza

Brave New Films

Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club

Monterey Bay Central Labor Council

The post Community Responds to ICE and GEO’s Plan to Expand Private Immigrant Prisons in California appeared first on Resilience OC.

April 22, 2019

Contact:

Ana Ramirez, ana@resilienceoc.org

Immigration Advocates call on OC Supervisors to hold OCSD accountable & have transparent Truth Act Forum

The OC Board of Supervisors have failed to hold the Orange County Sheriff’s Department accountable, leaving the immigrant community and immigration advocates to fend for themselves.

What: Press Conference and Public Forum on Orange County’s Relationship with ICE

When: Tuesday, April 23 at 8:30AM

Where: 333 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, CA 92701

SANTA ANA, CA — The OC Board of Supervisors are scheduled to have a public forum on the county’s collusion and cooperation with ICE this Tuesday, April 23 at 9:30AM. The Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds, or TRUTH Act (AB 2792), requires “local governing body of any county, city, or city and county in which a local law enforcement agency has provided ICE access to an individual during the last year shall hold at least one community forum during the following year, that is open to the public, in an accessible location, and with at least 30 days’ notice to provide information to the public about ICE’s access to individuals and to receive and consider public comment.”

The Truth Act Forum should be a platform for the OC Board of Supervisors to demand accountability, transparency and honesty from the OC Sheriff’s Department. This was not the route the OC Board of Supervisors took last year in December 2018 when they hosted a sham Truth Act Forum by merely receiving public comment and subsequently receiving and filing the item, ignoring calls of accountability from immigrant rights advocates. Other counties across the State of CA set a standard for how an engaging Truth Act Forum should be conducted. In Marin County last year the Immigrant Legal Resource Center was allowed to present on the Truth Act (AB 2792) and the California Values Act (SB 54).

The scheduling of the Truth Act Forum by the OC Board of Supervisors comes on the heels of numerous reports including: the 2017 Office of Inspector General report which detailed the unsafe conditions at the Theo Lacy facility and the serious health risks of serving spoiled meat; and the 2017 ACLU Report which shed light on the outrageous abuse and conditions of confinement detainees are subjected to; and most recently, the 2019 report by CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra highlighting the same systemic violations outlined in the 2017 reports. The OC Board of Supervisors need to examine and question Sheriff Don Barnes on the latest AG report.

The OC Board of Supervisors also need to hold Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes accountable for his reckless announcement to end immigration detention in Orange County, a decision that will lead to the closure of the only two publicly operated detention centers in OC, the James A. Musick in Irvine and Theo Lacy in Orange. Although immigrant rights advocates applaud the termination of the ICE contract, the manner in which the OCSD proceeded to end the contract has created a crisis for those detained, their families, the legal service providers in the area and the community that supports those detained.

Additionally, just last week the US Ninth District Court upheld the constitutionality of SB 54, marking again that limiting, if not ending, cooperation with ICE is a reality and within reach. The OC Board of Supervisors should move to end the loopholes of SB 54 and put a limit on honoring zero requests for transfers, holds, and interviews of immigrants who are within OCSD custody.

The OC Board of Supervisors lastly need to hold Sheriff Don Barnes accountable for falsely mischaracterizing and criminalizing the Orange County immigrant community. The Sheriff continues to create distrust between the immigrant community and governmental agencies given that Barnes continues to push forward anti-immigrant rhetoric as expressed on their published press statement in which Sheriff Don Barnes reassures his commitment to continue the collusion with ICE despite the ending of the contract. OCSD has an obligation to respond to the community.

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The post Immigration Advocates call on OC Supervisors to hold OCSD accountable & have transparent Truth Act Forum appeared first on Resilience OC.

Sheriff Don Barnes decision comes after years of pressure from human and immigrant rights organizations over conditions of detention and the continuing change in political landscape in the county.

Orange County, CA – On Wednesday March 27th, 2019, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes announced through a press statement his decision to withdraw from the county’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) contract. Don Barnes sent a letter to ICE to initiate the termination of the contract at the James A. Musick facility. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department currently detains nearly 1,000 community members jointly at the Theo Lacy and James A. Musick facilities. If ICE accepts the letter, they will have 120 days to force relocate the immigrant community out of Orange County. The guise that the Sheriff’s Department is using to make its decision is to provide additional jail based services for people with mental health needs. The county’s immigrant jails have been scathed in recent years with reports of inhumane conditions and treatment of the people under the custody of the OC Sheriff’s Department.

The OCSD has a track record of being against the immigrant community. While the Sheriff is signaling they are no longer interested in operating detention centers in Orange County, Sheriff Don Barnes has signaled they intend to work with ICE to the greatest extent of state law. Resilience OC fundamentally disagrees with Don Barnes continuing to conspire with ICE to detain and transfer anyone who comes in contact with local law enforcement. Resilience OC, in collaboration with the Orange County Rapid Response Network, will continue to work to address the needs of the community members being potentially relocated.

Resilience OC fundamentally disagrees with the OCSD’s decision to be in the business of administering and managing mental health service services for a vulnerable population. The OCSD has a record of violence and neglect towards those under their supervision as reported by the CA Attorney General & the US Department of Health and Human Services Office Inspector General. Mental health funding from the state and county should not be going towards agencies that already criminalize and incarcerate vulnerable populations. Alternatively, we call for community-based organizations and community-based health services providers to be prioritized to receive state and county funding for OC residents who need mental health services.

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The post Orange County Sheriff’s Department Ends Its Immigrant Detention Contract with ICE. appeared first on Resilience OC.

February 27th, 2019      

Southern CA Rapid Response Networks call on Cities, Counties, and State Government to respond to CA Attorney General’s Report on Detention Conditions

The SoCal Rapid Response Network collectively asks City, County, and State Governments to respond to the crisis inside CA detention centers.

Southern CA – A report released yesterday by Attorney General Xavier Becerra on inspections of immigration detention facilities in CA, mandated under AB 103 Dignity Not Detention, only confirms what Southern California Rapid Response Networks have long spoken out about— that ICE detention is rampant with abuse and neglect, systemic barriers to adequate legal representation, and isolation of immigrants from their families and support systems.

The Southern California Rapid Response Network is particularly concerned the report indicates that ICE blocked the Attorney General’s office from making full inspections of or having access to interview detainees and staff at any of the privately-operated detention centers in the State, of which 3 out of 4 are located in the Southern CA region (Adelanto, Imperial and Otay Mesa Detention Facilities). It is no surprise that these same detention centers are also home to some of the worst abuse allegations, particularly the Adelanto Detention Center, where unaddressed medical neglect has led to multiple deaths.

The report estimates there are 5,142 people detained throughout the state. The breakdown of numbers from the AG report also show that the majority of immigrants detained in California are housed in the Southern CA region, a total of 4,498 people. The detained population throughout the Southern California region are as follows:

• 1,940 in Inland Empire (Adelanto Detention Center)
• 958 in Orange County (Theo Lacy and James Musick facilities)
• 896 in San Diego County (Otay Mesa Detention Center)
• 704 in Imperial County (Imperial Detention Center)

Call to Action – It is for the aforementioned reasons that the undersigned ask of Cities, Counties, and the State government the following:

To the Attorney General Xavier Becerra – We call on you to exercise greater oversight of detention centers in CA, especially those that privately owned and operated. Work alongside community groups, non-profits, legal service providers, and directly impacted community members to be a part of this oversight process. Additionally, there remains an urgent need for more transparency and accountability when it comes to local law enforcement agencies violating state laws, like SB 54 (the Values Act) and AB 2792 (the Truth Act).

To the State Legislature and the CA Governor – It is imperative that the state not create the ground floor, but rather the ceiling for what is possible when helping those who are detained. Universal Representation at the state level should continue to be a priority and Due Process should be a right granted to everyone, including those who undocumented, detained, and with past convictions. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to enter the criminal justice system in CA should not have to be doubly punished and transferred over to ICE for deportation. As a state and community, we have to stand up and empower those who have been criminalized and as a state support the rehabilitation of people exiting the criminal justice system.

To City and County Governments – We call on you to defend Due Process at the City and County levels. Several jurisdictions across the state and country have created Legal Defense Funds for their Cities and Counties. Invest public dollars to protect those who are in immigration detention. Cities, Counties, and our State government can also invest in a regional Bond Fund. Not only that, City and County governments have the power to exercise greater oversight over detention facilities at the each of the regions. Work alongside community groups, non-profits, legal service providers, and directly impacted community members to be a part of this oversight process.

Lastly, we call on City, County and State and governments to end formal and informal cooperation with ICE and CBP. Ultimately, the undersigned below advocate and work towards limiting, if not ending, detentions and deportations in our State and across the Country. By ending collaboration on any scale will lead us towards that greater progress.

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The post Southern CA Rapid Response Networks call on Cities, Counties, and State Government to respond to CA Attorney General’s Report on Detention Conditions appeared first on Resilience OC.

Today Monday, January 7th, 2019, Resilience OC, the UCI Law School Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) hosted a press conference to release a report that outlines the state of immigration enforcement in Orange County. The report contains a first look at data about the impacts of the county’s immigration policies and places local officials’ entanglement with federal immigration enforcement efforts in the context of the county’s anti-immigrant legacy. The report is also forward-looking. It lays out a set of questions and demands for local elected officials to guide them towards a more inclusive future in which all immigrant communities are protected and treated with fairness and dignity.

The report comes as Orange County’s political landscape is being transformed through bold organizing by communities of color, as evidenced by the major electoral upsets during the November 2018 elections.

To download the report click here.

The post The State of Orange County appeared first on Resilience OC.

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