Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Organizations “Come Out” Against ICE’s “Secure Communities” Deportation Program

From our friends at Streetwise & Safe:
LGBT Immigrants At Risk of Deportation, Violence as a Result of Police/ICE Collaboration

Dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations across the country are adding their voices to the growing national movement to end ICE‘s controversial fingerprint-sharing ―Secure Communities (S-Comm) program. By forcing local law enforcement to share fingerprint data for every person arrested – no matter how valid or minor the charge - with federal immigration authorities, S-Comm has contributed to skyrocketing numbers of detentions and deportations.

Prompted by ICE‘s unilateral move to make the highly debated program mandatory, national, regional, and local LGBTQ organizations—including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) — felt compelled to mark National Coming Out Day by adding their voices to the national upsurge of opposition to S-Comm today.

"NCAVP is concerned by the impact of police/ICE collaboration on LGBTQ survivors of violence. It is not uncommon for LGBTQ survivors of violence to be arrested when they call police for help. NCAVP member programs know that many LGBTQ survivors do not access police for safety when they experience violence, and the Secure Communities program may increase fear, barriers to safety, and risk of detention and deportation for LGBTQ immigrant communities," said Chai Jindasurat, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) Coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. "In honor of this year‘s National Coming Out Day, NCAVP calls for an end to a program that has severe consequences for LGBTQ people."

In a statement released on National Coming Out Day, over sixty LGBTQ groups call on President Obama to take immediate action to eliminate this destructive program. California Assemblymember and longtime LGBTQ rights activist Tom Ammiano echoed this call: "Every day LGBTQ Californians are being unfairly deported leading to tragic consequences for communities both here and across the country. I am urging the Obama Administration to end the deception around S-Comm and suspend this damaging program."

"The LGBTQ movement has often been an example of how to hold your head high with pride in the face of discrimination. As migrants, we're inspired by National Coming Out Day and strengthened by this show of solidarity," said Sarahi Uribe, Organizer of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

"We hear regular reports of LGBTQ people who find themselves in deportation proceedings after being profiled by their race, class, sexuality, and gender as they go about their daily lives or even as they navigate domestic violence," said Morgan Bassichis of the San Francisco-based Community United Against Violence (CUAV), the country’s oldest LGBTQ anti-violence organization. "Rather than making anyone more 'secure,' S-Comm endangers all communities by tearing at the fabric of family and support networks and creating a culture of fear."

The statement marks a historic confluence of movements for LGBTQ rights and migrant rights, and increased attention to migrant issues within LGBTQ communities. "On this National Coming Out Day, we recognize that LGBT immigrants need more than acceptance from family, schools, and neighbors to be 'out:' they need to be free from profiling, detention, and deportation," said Mónica Enriquez-Enriquez of Streetwise and Safe, an organization working with LGBTQ youth of color in New York City and signatory to the statement.

For background information on the Secure Communities program, read the report at “Restoring Community."

Streetwise and Safe (SAS) is a New York City-based organization create opportunities for LGBTQQ youth of color who experience homelessness, policing, and criminalization to claim a seat at policy discussion tables as full participants, speak out on their own behalf, act collectively to protect and advance their rights, and demand choices that allow them to maximize their safety, self-sufficiency, and self-determination.

One Big Slap: Now Let's Do Something By Tracie Washington

After Hurricane Katrina, they fired public school teachers in New Orleans, and I didn't speak up because I'm not a teacher.

Then they excluded residents who wanted to work on reconstruction while exploiting migrant and immigrant workers, and I didn't speak up because I'm not a construction worker.

Then they closed down Charity Hospital, and I didn't speak up because I have health insurance.

Then they discriminated against African American residents in need of home repair grants, and I didn't speak up because I didn't need the grant.

Then they locked up and later tore down public housing, and I didn't speak up because I own my home.

Then they restricted public education for African American children, and I didn't speak up because my child is enrolled in private school.

When they come for you and me who will be left to speak up?

-Monique Harden, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights

For the longest time, I couldn’t remember when I didn’t want to be a lawyer. Last summer, my son Jacob made me delve into my jumbled memory when he announced that he, too, wants to be an attorney, and asked how I knew this would be my career.

So here’s where I date myself. It was 1977 when I was first introduced by television to Patricia Roberts Harris. I was blown away. Now I had the good fortune of being raised in a family of highly educated Black women. But Patricia Roberts Harris was different. She encompassed all that was in my family history, and this promise of what could be. I wanted to grown up to be just like her, to study as hard as she had, to work as hard and as long as she had, and to gain the success and the recognition she had. I even made everyone in my family call me by all three names, just for practice.

Friends, while our role models may be different, I am sure each of you had that Patricia Roberts Harris moment. And I know our paths and our family histories, in some cases shared and in others simply interwoven in Louisiana’s rich African-American tapestry, are nearly identical. So I share with you the personal insult I felt … the Slap in the Face ... when I learned Senator Mary Landrieu could not would not nominate for appointment more than one African-American lawyer to fill four judicial vacancies in Louisiana.[1]

There is one obvious choice for at least one seat on the federal district court bench. She is Magistrate Karen Wells Roby. The Honorable Karen Wells Roby was appointed to serve as a United States magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Oct. 16, 1998, and since 1999 she has presided over civil jury and non-jury matters in the areas of Title VII, personal injury and §1983 matters upon the consent of the parties. She is also responsible for the review of social security cases and habeas corpus matters challenging the constitutionality of criminal tria1s conducted in the state courts. She is renowned for her adroitness as a mediator in cases pending before the District Court, having successfully resolved cases in the area of Title VII, Jones Act, admiralty, personal injury, contractual disputes and limitations. Magistrate Roby will lead the Federal Magistrate Judges Association as its President-elect next year, and as president in in the following year. This honor was bestowed by her peers nationally in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments as a jurist.

Beyond the bench, Karen Wells Roby is active in community service. She volunteers to serve food at Ozanam Inn. A lifelong education equity advocate, and recognizing the critical state of our public education system, Judge Roby had devoted her time to assisting the education system in New Orleans, as an officer in a parent-teacher organization, designing websites for schools, writing grants, and by serving on the boards of the New Orleans Bar Association and the Louisiana Center for Law & Civic Education. She tutors African-American law students who have experienced difficulty passing the bar exam, and she serves as a mentor for minority young lawyers and students regarding professional career choices and encourages them to volunteer in community activities. She has served on the boards of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, the New Orleans Bar Association and the Louisiana Center for Law & Civic Education.

She is a life-long resident of New Orleans, married to Attorney Clarence Roby, and mother of two outstanding sons. Karen Wells Roby is one of us. She shares our history. She lives those values to which we subscribe: integrity, hard work, commitment to the community.

Of course there are other highly qualified African-American attorneys Senator Landrieu could have appointed. But my line of demarcation is drawn at Magistrate Roby. Why? By not fighting for this nomination, we acquiesce to the resurging legacy of our city’s racist past, allowing certain Sinisters to impugn the integrity of one of our best and brightest with unfounded, nasty vitriol. If not Magistrate Roby, then who? Who else amongst us will ever be deemed qualified to take the bench? Senator Landrieu delivered that answer us on Monday with One Big Slap. No one.

I want my son, and your children to have their Patricia Roberts Harris moment. But it has to mean something, their hard work now must not be in vain and, therefore, we cannot let this injustice stand. We must fight together. Join me and take action by sending a letter to Deputy White House Counsel Susan Davies (whitehousecounsel@who.eop.gov) [2], who is responsible for day to day operations for judicial appointments, and promoting President Obama’s call for diversity in the federal courts. We must notify the president of this continuing injustice … this civil rights violation … in Louisiana’s appointment process by Senator Landrieu’s actions. We can make this right.
----------------------------------------------------
[1] Filling seats for U.S. District Court judges Stanwood Duval, Mary Ann Vial Lemmon, and G. Thomas Porteus, and U.S. Court of Appeals judge Jacques Weiner.

[2]Susan Davies, Deputy White House Counsel, The White House Office, Office of White House Counsel, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.

Photo above: Judge Karen Wells Roby.

Gulf Coast Community Members Question US Government On Human Rights Record

For the first time, the US government is participating in a process that allows the United Nations to review the human rights records of all member states. The first step of that process began today at Xavier University when representatives from the Obama Administration came to listen to, and answer questions from, people from the Gulf Coast.

The purpose of these consultations by government officials is to assist the government in developing its US Human Rights Report. Similar consultations will take place around the country for the next few months in order to prepare for the United Nations' first Universal Periodic Review in November of 2010. The UN Human Rights Council is expected to review the US report in December and issue a report in early 2011.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process was introduced with the formation of the reformed UN Human Rights Council in 2006. Each UN member state’s human rights record will be reviewed by three of their peers who will review all human rights obligations and commitments to which the member state is a party, as well as any voluntary pledges and commitments made by that country. Last year, the US formally joined the Human Rights Council and pledged to respect human rights at home and abroad.

According to Kali Akuno of the US Human Rights Network, "The UPR process offers an important opportunity to address how the United States is meeting its human rights obligations under the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to pressure the government to live up to its obligations, and to provide concrete and constructive recommendations about steps the US can take to ensure the protection and promotion of rights and dignity for all."

In other words, this is an important opportunity to hold the US government to international human rights standards. International agreements that guarantee rights to housing and protect against racial discrimination often offer more protection than US laws. As Malcolm X observed, "As long as you’re fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s jurisdiction. You’re going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created the problem. He’s the criminal. You don’t take your case to the criminal; you take your criminal to court.”

Addressing the Obama Administration officials at Xavier today, Norris Henderson of Voice Of The Ex-offender (VOTE) laid out the problems in New Orleans' criminal justice system, asking why a city of this size is planning to build a jail with the capacity to hold 8,000 prisoners. "We are the first to tell other countries what to do," Henderson said. "But, like Michael Jackson, we need to look at the Man in the Mirror."

Today's consultation is another step forward in holding the US government accountable. But there is still a long way to go. "We need to do something dramatic," said Henderson, after describing some of the human rights abuses he's seen and struggled to fight. "We need to shake this system to it's core."