Dear
Friends:
 
On Tuesday,
October 19, MRNY will hold our Third Annual Democracy Day with 1,000 members
standing together with elected officials, clergy and allies to tell New York City
to get out of the deportation business and end its unjust cooperation with Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
 
Join us
for a march across the Brooklyn Bridge and a rally by City Hall!
 
Each
year, the NYC Department of Corrections (DOC) assists ICE in transferring 3,000-4,000
New Yorkers into deportation proceedings. This process is expensive for the DOC,
placing undue financial burden on NYC taxpayers, even though there is no legal obligation for the City to
cooperate in this way. Neither agency exercises any discretion in this process
and routinely places asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, long-term
permanent residents, juveniles, persons seeking protection under the Violence
Against Women Act, and individuals with NO criminal record in immigration
detention.
 
It works like this: if you are arrested and unable to
produce immigration documents – even if you are wrongfully arrested and
acquitted of all charges – you could still be placed in deportation
proceedings. Even Lawful Permanent Residents are often sent to immigration
jails thousands of miles away and placed in deplorable conditions – without
adequate access to counsel, medical care, family, witnesses, or evidence
necessary to defend themselves against deportation orders.
 
This
practice makes witnesses and victims afraid to come forward about a crime for
fear of deportation – making everyone in NYC less safe. It also leaves behind thousands of broken families every year.
Approximately 50% of immigrant families that lose bread-winners to deportation
become reliant on some form of public assistance.

On Tuesday, join us to launch a campaign to pass legislation that protects the
rights of all New Yorkers by establishing a deportation process that is fair
and focuses the City’s scant resources on those individuals that pose a real
threat to the safety of New Yorkers.