The immigration enforcement system harms immigrant communities in many ways, including through surveillance, arrests, detentions, and deportations. This system is built on white supremacy, economic exploitation, and criminalization, and must be dismantled. California’s taxpayer dollars should be invested in services that improve people’s lives – like programs that assist immigrants in getting the legal help and holistic services they need – and divested from the immigration detention and deportation systems.
For nearly a decade, CIPC has worked to challenge the criminalization of immigrant communities, disrupt the arrest to deportation pipeline, and end local and state support for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and detention centers. We continue to do this work with a racial justice lens and in partnership with grassroots organizations and coalitions to ensure every Californian has the freedom to thrive and remain in their communities with their families without constant fear of incarceration and deportation.
CIPC is an active member of the ICE out of CA coalition, which works to end the entanglement between local and state law enforcement and ICE, and strategically push ICE out of our communities across California. In 2023, the ICE out of CA coalition introduced the Harmonizing Our Measures for Equality (HOME) Act (AB 1306 – Carrillo) to ensure that immigrant Californians who have earned their release from state prison and qualify for certain criminal legal reforms can reunite with their families and rebuild their lives like any other Californian. The HOME Act prohibits the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) from transferring immigrant Californians, who qualify for recent, broadly-supported criminal justice reforms, to ICE for detention and deportation.
CIPC, alongside the ICE out of California coalition, will continue working to ensure that incarcerated immigrant community members have the opportunity to come home when released from state prisons and local jails, and are not subjected to the double punishment of being transferred to ICE for detention, deportation, and family separation.
CIPC is a member of the Check the Sheriff coalition, which is an intersectional coalition of racial justice, police accountability, immigrant justice, and mass liberation organizations. We successfully ended warrantless ICE transfers in LA County and are working to end the violence of the LA Sheriff’s Department. In 2022, CIPC partnered with the Check the Sheriff Coalition on the Yes on Measure A Campaign, a ballot measure that successfully passed by a landslide of 71.8% or 1,633,918 votes in the 2022 LA County Election. Measure A grants the L.A. County Board of Supervisor the power to remove a sheriff for violations of the public trust.
Ending ICE Transfers in LA County
Through the LA Justice Fund (LAJF) /Represent LA coalition, CIPC continues our work to ensure that immigrants have access to government-funded holistic legal services. LAJF ensures that immigrants who are deeply rooted in L.A. City and County have a chance to remain in their communities as they navigate deportation proceedings. As Los Angeles takes steps to advance racial justice, LAJF represents an investment in communities which are criminalized and overpoliced. Immigrants of color, particularly Black immigrants, feel the double oppression that comes from over-policing from both law enforcement and immigration enforcement.
Together with partner organizations, CIPC has been working on a long-overdue Sanctuary ordinance for Los Angeles City. In March 2023, Los Angeles City Council champions introduced a “Sanctuary” City motion. The motion begins the process for drafting an ordinance that prohibits City resources, property, or personnel from being used for federal immigration enforcement. The unjust and racist immigration detention and deportation system should not be supported by local resources. Local resources should be put into supporting immigrant families, not tearing them apart.
Through the REP4All campaign, CIPC advances racial justice by ensuring that immigrant Californians are able to access holistic legal services through the One California (One CA) program, regardless of any past interaction with the criminal legal system. Since 2015, the One CA program, one of the largest state-funded programs for immigration services in the nation, funds immigration legal services to help address the needs of thousands of low-income immigrant Californians and their families every year, such as DACA, TPS, U.S. citizenship, and deportation defense services.
In 2023, CIPC co-established the REP4All campaign and Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer introduced AB 617 – the REP for All Immigrants Act. The Act will strengthen the One CA program by eliminating unfair exclusions to accessing the One CA program and ensuring groups across the state have the resources needed to serve California’s immigrant communities. All people have a right to human dignity, due process, and fairness. Nobody should have to stand alone when facing detention, deportation and family separation.
The REP4All bill is sponsored by CIPC, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – SOCAL, Central American Resource Center – Los Angeles, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Vera Institute of Justice.
Together with partners, CIPC has successfully won legislation to push back against the detention and deportation machine. These laws and policy victories have restricted many of the ways in which people are identified and placed into detention, and increased due process for immigrants facing deportation.
A step towards accountability and compliance to federal, state, and local standards, this bill will ensure that all private, for-profit prisons in California— including immigration detention centers—adhere to necessary health..Read More
Together with a coalition of diverse organizations, CIPC has organized and advocated for the creation, renewal, and expansion of the LA Justice Fund. In 2017, Los Angeles City, Los Angeles..Read More
CIPC worked with partners across the state to pass this vital measure, which helps protect families and communities from the cruel deportation machine. SB 54, sometimes referred to as the..Read More
The TRUTH Act puts vital know-your-rights information in the hands of immigrant community members held in local jails and targeted by ICE. The TRUTH Act ensures community members have the..Read More
The TRUST Act, passed after a three-year community campaign, set a minimum standard across California to limit cruel and costly ICE hold requests in local jails. The TRUST Act also..Read More
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