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National
Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Dear NNIRR Members, Partners, Allies, and Friends: We are urging you to help stop the passage of the CLEAR Act (Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act, H.R. 2671) and, its Senate counterpart, the Homeland Security Enhancement Act (S.1906). CLEAR represents the latest attempt to authorize federal immigration law enforcement by state and local police. The fight to prevent CLEAR and all forms of immigration-police collaboration will be a strategic issue to address over the months to come. We have enclosed a set of background materials (in English and Spanish) on CLEAR to work with your constituencies and to contact and write letters to your Congressional delegation and other elected officials to oppose the CLEAR Act and all forms of immigration-police collaboration. These include: · Talking Points on how local and state police collaboration
in immigration enforcement threatens public safety and rights. Why CLEAR must be Stopped – Background If passed, the CLEAR Act would allow local and state police to implement immigration laws and list individuals with alleged civil immigration law violations in the National Crime Information Center databank, which is accessed by police during routine traffic stops. Police departments that participated in the CLEAR mandated program would receive new federal monies. Police departments that refused would lose federal funds paid to local agencies for jailing immigrants awaiting deportations. The Senate version would prohibit states from issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. The CLEAR Act and other efforts to authorize immigration-police collaboration are rife with problems. A growing number of police departments oppose CLEAR because it would undermine trust between police and local immigrant and refugee communities. Immigrants would fear reporting crimes, fires, or other emergencies to the police and other government agencies. CLEAR makes immigrants more vulnerable to rights abuses and to detention and deportation. The CLEAR Act (H.R. 2671) was introduced July 9, 2003 by Congressman Charles Norwood (Republican of Georgia) and has 112 co-sponsors. Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Zell Miller (D-GA) introduced the Senate version, the Homeland Security Enhancement Act (S.1906), in November 2003. Reports of on-going negotiations in Congress raise many concerns about CLEAR and its detrimental impact on other proposed immigration reforms. Defeat CLEAR -- Stop all immigration-police collaboration CLEAR is only one mechanism among various and ongoing efforts to officially enlist local and state police as enforcers of immigration laws. Defeating CLEAR is strategic to stopping all forms of immigration-police collaboration. For example: · After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department
of Justice and Attorney General John Ashcroft, first in December 2001,
took several steps to expand the powers of federal marshals and FBI
agents to detain individuals on the basis of immigration violations
and legitimize the role of local and state police in immigration enforcement. While IIRIRA permits local and state police collaboration under specific conditions and with intensive training course in federal immigration law enforcement, immigration-police collaboration has been taking place even before 9/11. We urge you to consider taking immediate action to organize opposition to CLEAR. It represents the latest attempt to authorize immigration-police collaboration and poses the biggest threat yet to undermining public safety and the rights of immigrant and refugee communities.
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