National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
310 8th St. Suite 303 * Oakland, CA 94607 * (510)465-1984 * (510)465-1885 fax* www.nnirr.org

How does the CLEAR Act threaten our safety and rights?

Introduced by Rep Charles Norwood (Republican-GA) in July 2003, the CLEAR Act (Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act – HR 2671) would authorize local and state police to act as immigration law enforcers. CLEAR currently has 112 co-sponsors. The Homeland Security Enhancement Act (S.1906), CLEAR’s Senate counterpart, was introduced last November 2003 by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Senator Zell Miller (R-GA).

CLEAR imperils public safety and violates the civil rights of immigrant and refugee communities.

How does the CLEAR Act threaten public safety and civil rights?

• CLEAR will discourage members of immigrant and refugee communities from reporting domestic violence, crimes, fires or other emergencies for fear of being detained and deported.
• CLEAR would have dangerous consequences for battered immigrant women and their children, who often fear that their abuser will report them to immigration officers in retaliation for contacting the police.
• CLEAR would encourage local law enforcement to use racial profiling, which is illegal, resulting in civil rights violations and abuses against immigrant and refugee communities. While many police departments have worked to end racial profiling, CLEAR would undermine the credibility of police departments to effectively serve all communities.
• The CLEAR Act will undermine trust between local law enforcement and immigrant and refugee communities, making immigrants more vulnerable to abuse and making all communities less safe.
• CLEAR makes law enforcement unaccountable for abuses resulting from immigration enforcement because it would provide immunity from civil lawsuits to federal, state and local police enforcing immigration laws.
• CLEAR criminalizes immigrants. The detention and processing of people with minor immigration violations who pose no danger to society – such as individuals who failed to mail in a change of address for or students who have dropped down in course load for a semester – are not good uses of limited government funds. CLEAR only serves to further criminalize individuals solely for their immigration status.
• CLEAR would require local law enforcement officers to take on responsibilities that have little to do with making our communities safer.
• CLEAR would be an “unfunded mandate” for local and state governments. At a time of severe budget crises, taking on the federal government’s job of immigration enforcement will overwhelm local police departments and divert local personnel from their primary duties.
• Finally, by undercutting whatever trust immigrant and refugee communities have of police, CLEAR will make all communities less safe and undermine our rights.

Please tell your Representative and Senators to Stop the CLEAR Act

Our message is unequivocal: immigration-police collaboration threatens public safety and undermines our rights, threatening immigrants and refugees with illegal racial profiling and deportations. The police must provide safety and security for all.

Contact information for your Representative is available at www.house.gov and for your Senators at www.senate.gov.

Please telephone, write a letter, or send a fax to your Congressional delegation now!

Tell them: STOP CLEAR: Say NO to all forms of immigration-police collaboration!

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For more information on the campaign to stop the CLEAR Act, please visit: www.nnirr.org or call (510) 465-1984 ext. 305.