#FreeThemAll Toolkit

#FreeThemAll:

Toolkit to Support Local Demands for Mass Release of People in ICE Custody

Acknowledgements:

This working toolkit has been drafted by Detention Watch Network with crucial input from California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, Grassroots Leadership, Just Futures Law, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, La Resistencia, and the South East Immigrant Rights Network.

Table of Contents

Introduction

In response to the growing public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States government’s inadequate response, we have developed this working toolkit to help guide and support the work of organizations and individuals looking to demand the release of people in ICE custody. Organizations and individuals should assess their capacity and determine what strategies and targets fit best with the resources they have available and the number of people involved. This is by no means an exhaustive list of options and existing tools, its an attempt to centralize what has already been created and make it accessible to different local and regional contexts.

If there are resources not listed here that you feel would be useful to include, please reach out to Marcela Hernandez at mhernandez@detentionwatchnetwork.org.

Values to Guide Our Work

  • Working towards abolition and racial justice. Immigrant jails are part of the prison industrial complex and it is imperative that  organizations work in solidarity and coordination with local anti-incarceration organizations to call for the release of everyone in cages, and an end to raids and local enforcement operations. County jails are a key component of the immigrant detention system, it’s crucial that organizers supporting the release of people detained in ICE custody uplift the demands of groups working to dismantle the prison industrial complex.
  • “Nothing about us without us” comes to us from the disability justice movement and captures the essence of how we must engage people detained in our fight for their freedom. Maintaining a constant line of communication with those inside ICE jails, and those who have survived that system, helps ensure our work is not having unintended negative consequences for people detained and responds to their immediate needs and priorities.
  • Language justice and accessibility. We know most resources are not in the language of communities who are most impacted. In order for our communities to access and understand our work and demands, we need to translate resources to inform those impacted by these policies and their loved ones.
  • Demand Freedom for All! The COVID-19 pandemic highlights why cages are a public health nuisance, people can’t heal, recuperate, or avoid infection in jails and prisons. No one will get released unless we demand everyone be released. This is not a time to make exceptions, it’s a matter of life and death. Contrary to how the government has treated this crisis, we cannot treat anyone as expendable. Our demands will in large part determine what we are able to achieve, the least we can do is push for everyone to be released.

Federal Strategies

Target: Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tony H. Pham

The devastating death toll of people in ICE custody for Fiscal Year 2020 is the highest in 15 years; 21 people lost their lives to an immigration system that simply does not need to exist.  Given the enclosed and crowded nature of immigrant detention and ICE’s demonstrated inability to deal with past infectious disease outbreaks, COVID-19 has the potential to dramatically increase the number of deaths in detention. This doesn’t have to be the case. As the interim director of ICE, Director Tony H. Pham oversees all of ICE’s day-to-day operations and has broad authority over regional offices to order the release of people from ICE custody. Director Pham can also direct regional offices to cease all enforcement operations. This is important to prevent further population increases in detention and to avoid additional harm to immigrant communities already living in moments of extreme uncertainty due to COVID-19. Director Pham can and should take these steps to avoid preventable deaths and harm. 

Demands:

  • Release of all people currently detained in ICE custody
  • Cease all local enforcement operations including civil enforcement and criminal referrals
  • Eliminate ICE check-ins, use of electronic monitoring, and mandatory court appearances  
  • Make phone and video calls free for people connecting with their loved ones
  • Ensure all facilities where people are detained in ICE custody, be it county jails or dedicated facilities, are prioritizing the health and wellbeing of people detained

Tactics:

Target: Members of Congress

Members of Congress have the opportunity to play a significant role in how the country responds to COVID-19. Since Congress has oversight and budgetary power over federal agencies and oftentimes local agencies, they have plenty of options to both be the decision-makers and effectively pressure other targets. Therefore we need to make sure their statements and actions reflect our opposition and serve to amplify our demands. Members of Congress should be using their authority to expose ICE’s inadequacies and abuse and to pressure the agency from the top down – from the DHS Secretary to the ICE Director Pham to field office directors and local officials in their states. Members of Congress and their delegations will continue to have access to the facility for the purpose of conducting oversight. This could include leveraging relationships with local elected officials in their district to halt enforcement actions or organizing their colleagues in Congress against approving any additional funding for the agency.

How to identify your Members of Congress:

Demands:

  • Draft an individual letter to ICE
  • Your congressional member can write an individual letter to the ICE Director to indict how little prepared ICE is to manage an outbreak in a detention facility and demand they use their authority to release people from custody.
  • Pressure your local target
  • Federal, state, and local officials do not exist in their own worlds. Elected officials hold extensive relationships with each other, and their actions impact each other’s work. If you have a local target you need help moving, see if your Member of Congress will leverage their relationship and authority to apply additional pressure.
  • ICE Field Office Directors operate regionally and have some of the greatest authority to release people from detention and operate regionally. If you have an ICE field office in your state, demand that your senator pressure the field office director to release everyone in detention in their area of responsibility.
  • Make a public statement demanding release of people
  • As members continue to amplify the impacts and potential solutions for COVID-19, request that they make a statement demanding the release of people from prisons and detention centers. The statement can be a press release, Twitter post, floor speech, or comment to the media.
  • Direct ICE to release people from detention in emergency funding packages to address COVID-19, instead of giving the agency any supplemental funds

Tactics

  • Considerations when contacting your Member of Congress
  • Congressional member offices are also practicing social distancing, being quarantined or are working from home. Consider the following as you pressure your local legislators.
  • Prioritize emailing as you send our action alerts instead of calling their in-district or DC offices
  • Use social media to amplify your demands. Make sure to include the member’s social media handles and #FreeThemAll
  • Email your Member of Congress

Templates

Target: Consulates

Many countries have instituted travel bans from the US and we’ve heard of reports that some are not accepting deportations due to public health concerns. Consider contacting consulates to encourage them to advocate for release of their nationals. You can find the contact information for various consulates here.

State & Regional Strategies

 

Federal officials and Members of Congress are not the only people able to intervene and pressure for a mass release of people in detention. Governors have the ability to intervene by initiating immediate inquiries and use the power of their office to demand ICE release people detained in their custody on the basis of public health and the liabilities mass detention represents for the community. Field Office Directors are the top ICE officials at the regional level and oversee ICE detention and enforcement operations, including ICE check-ins related to pending deportation cases.

Target: Your State’s Governor

Demands:

  • Initiate an inquiry into ICE’s response for people detained
  • Demand all people in ICE custody be released, pressure local sheriffs who are holding people for ICE to release them
  • Pressure sheriffs and other elected officials to stop cooperating with ICE to funnel people into detention, especially on the basis of prioritizing resources for public health
  • Make a public statement demanding ICE protect people detained by releasing those in custody
  • Demand a stop to transfers from Department of Correction state facilities to ICE
  • In TX since we have SB4 (maybe a section can be added for states that have state laws) we are framing this as resource priority (which is an SB4 caveat) that in this time, resources should be going towards local public health needs and not towards ICE.

Templates:

Target: ICE Field Office Director for your region (find out who that is here)

Demands:

  • ICE must use its discretion to release all individuals at [detention centers in your locality]. To start, ICE must grant the release of people who are at high risk of serious illness.
  • Provision of hygiene supplies
  • Screening, testing of the people in custody
  • Quarantining in hospitals and treatment of the people in custody.
  • Access to family and community support
  • Suspension of in-person check ins
  • Suspension of local enforcement operations in all locations including but not limited to the community, courthouses, and through the local criminal system

Template:

Local Strategies 

Local decision-makers do have the power to mandate a stop to immigration enforcement activities that increase people being put in immigrant detention and should demand release of people in detention in their localities. Local health departments should take into consideration the health of all people under their jurisdiction and advocate for their wellbeing which means demanding release of people incarcerated.

Target: Your Mayor

Demands:

  • Call for the release of community members in local jails going through immigration proceedings and criminal legal proceedings. Place a moratorium on any more detention in local jails and declare them a public health nuisance.
  • Mandate local law enforcement to stop any collaboration with ICE and DHS.
  • Mandate city entities to not ask for immigration status nor share information with ICE.
  • Mandate health and medical entities to serve immigrants being released and provide information in languages reflecting the local immigrant population.

Tactics:

  • Organizational sign-on letters.
  • Calls, e-mails, social media days of action.
  • Urge your city council representative to send a letter.

Templates:

Target: Local Health Department (find out how to contact them here)- County/City Health Department Director and Board of Health

To research if there is an ICE facility near you, start here.

Demands:

  • Write a public statement declaring detention a public health nuisance and calling for ICE and any private corporations involved in local contracts  to release all people detained.
  • Conduct and release results of an immediate in-person inquiry and on-site inspection at the detention center to find out if cases of COVID-19 exist there, how they are being handled and communicated about, and how prevention measures beyond posters telling people to cover their cough are being taken.
  • Inform the public and detained people what your plans are for addressing an outbreak at the local detention center.

Tactics:

Target: Sheriff's Departments

Demands:

  • Stop any collaboration with ICE, including but not limited to 287(g) agreements; allowing ICE in the jail for any purpose including ICE arrests, information-sharing, or ICE interviews; information-sharing with ICE including a person’s release date, access to local databases, booking information or any other local information; supporting in ICE raids; and joint task forces. Cooperating with ICE funnels people directly into detention, which only increases the number of people in detention, heightening the risk of a health crisis.
  • Decrease the number of people in the county jail system by engaging in increased early release, increased cite and release, suspend booking of people for parole or probation violations, take immediate steps for pretrial release in particular for vulnerable populations, and for those who remain in custody immediately develop testing and healthcare protocols as well as increased access to visitation, phones calls, and mail. Fewer people in the criminal system means fewer people funneled en masse to detention.
  • Stop receiving community members to be detained at facilities under your jurisdiction.
  • Ask local health departments to conduct on-site inspections immediately and provide resources as people are released.
  • Support release of people in detention.

Tactics:

  • Organizational sign-on letters.
  • Calls, e-mails, social media days of action.
  • Letters from the Board of Supervisors who have control over the sheriff's department budget and any oversight committees.
  • Consider targeting the Warrant Service Officer program, if applicable.

Templates:

What is a 287(g)?

  • Does your locality or a neighboring locality have a 287(g) agreement?
  • Check out this map put together by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center that tracks 287(g) agreements across the country and offers resources for those who want to fight back.

Target: Board of Supervisors

Demands:

  • Write a public statement declaring detention a public health nuisance and calling for ICE and any private corporations involved in local contracts to release all people detained.
  • Mandate the Public Health Department to conduct and release results of an immediate in-person inquiry and on-site inspection at the detention center to find out if cases of COVID-19 exist there, how they are being handled and communicate the actions and results to the community publicly.
  • Demand that the Sheriff Department end collaboration with ICE including through 287(g) agreements, raids, joint task forces, ICE access to the jails including for ICE interviews and arrests, or information sharing such as databases or booking sheets. When local law enforcement cooperates with ICE, this funnels more people to detention, only heightening the risk of a health crisis.

Tactics:

  • Organizational sign-on letters. Calls, e-mails, social media days of action.

Templates

Target: City Council

Demands:

  • Write a public statement declaring detention a public health nuisance and calling for ICE and any private corporations involved in local contracts  to release all people detained.
  • Mandate the public health department to conduct and release results of an immediate in-person inquiry and on-site inspection at the detention center to find out if cases of COVID-19 exist there, how they are being handled and communicate the actions and results to the community publicly.
  • Place a moratorium on any local law enforcement collaboration with ICE including raids, joint task forces, ICE interviews inside of jails and sharing of information with ICE that will increase the number of people in detention and heighten the risk of a health crisis.

Tactics:

  • Organizational sign-on letters.
  • Calls, e-mails, social media days of action.

Templates:

Resources to Influence Decision Makers

Communications Resources:

Media Coverage & Resources to Support your Demands:

Jail Releases in response to COVID-19:

COVID-19 and Immigration Detention

Additional media coverage

Additional Resources

Calls to Action from Organizations Fighting Mass Incarceration

Coordinating your Community to Welcome People Being Released

We know from past examples that ICE’s cruel treatment frequently extends into when people are released from detention. Should ICE release people from it’s custody, we can expect that they will do so in a haphazard way. For example, we’ve seen ICE release people at bus stations without weather-appropriate clothing, funds, or even basic guidance or instructions about where they are. Predictably, this has led to confusion, people getting stranded, and difficulty accessing support. For these reasons, it is important that our communities proactively assess what resources exist to support people released from ICE custody and how best to coordinate and allocate those resources.

Here are some best practices we recommend considering as you develop your community release response plan:  

  • Form a group: Before forming your own logistical team, research whether there are existing mutual aid rapid response networks in your region to avoid reinventing the wheel. Check with trusted community members and existing migrant rights organizations to see who can commit to mobilizing to meet immigrants that are released. Consider assigning a couple of volunteer coordinators who can help with group follow-up and communications and schedules, as needed.
  • Don’t panic, but be smart: Please note, given the threat which COVID-19 poses to communities everywhere, you may want to consider forming a logistical team of young adults without underlying health conditions or compromised immune systems who, outside of emergency solidarity mobilizations, can commit to practice social distancing and other precautionary measures. Should one of the volunteers exhibit any flu-like symptoms, that person should notify the volunteer coordinators and/or group and isolate themselves.
  • Share knowledge and resources: As a general precautionary measure to both volunteers and released community members, set aside some basic prevention supplies including hand sanitizer that contain at least 60% alcohol, disinfectants wipes or spray, and disposable masks to be distributed to immigrants only if they exhibit any flu-like symptoms. If you have enough supplies, make emergency travel bags with the above items and give them to immigrants who are traveling to another location. Some trips may take several days so include some basic travel items like toothbrushes and toothpaste and snacks. Finally, you can expect that ICE hasn’t done its part in providing even basic information to immigrants on how to protect themselves from COVID-19 and prevent spread. Ask those being released if they’ve received any guidance on COVID-19. If they haven’t, offer to share resources like this CDC one-pager.
  • Emergency housing: Although many people may choose to immediately travel on to their next destination, for a variety of reasons, others may choose to or need to stay in the community they are released into. Assess together and with partner groups what trusted organizations may be willing to offer short-term emergency housing. Places of worship, for example, may be good institutions to approach. Finally, check with your volunteers and/or other trusted community members to see if they have the capacity and ability to also provide housing should the need arise.  
  • Pooling medical resources: If you have a relationship with trusted medical professionals, ask them now if they would be willing to be on call to offer support and recommendations should an immigrant exhibit any symptoms. Ask furthermore, whether there are other trusted medical professionals in their network that they can ask to also support.
  • Community Financial Support: Migrant communities often depend on each other for financial support to get through difficult times. Given that all members of the family can be out of work because of the increase in city mandates to “shelter in place” it will be difficult to support community members being released from detention. Start raising support funds through various platforms including Venmo, GoFundMe and PayPal to support individuals and their families.
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel: If ICE releases people in mass, it will definitely take work and coordination from our communities but remember it’s not the first or last time that our communities will rise to the occasion. Many border communities, for example, have been responding to mass releases for several years now. If there are groups in your area already doing similar work, connect with them for localized tips and coordination! For one set of additional tips/recommendations on what other details to consider when supporting released community members, check out this video by the Rio Grande Equal Voice Network. 

Free them All Action Guide (existing petitions organized by state)

Join Detention Watch Network (DWN), along with organizations and community across the country to support ongoing #FreeThemAll Calls to Action and  #FreeThemAll National Days of Action. You can support by participating on existing national and local calls to action or upcoming days of action outlined in this #FreeThemAll Action Guide.