We are in a pivotal moment in the national and local movement to abolish ICE. On Friday, many of us rallied at Foley Square with fellow New Yorkers to demand ICE out of New York, ICE out of Minnesota, ICE out everywhere. Also that day, Governor Hochul, in the face of relentless advocacy from immigration justice organizers across the state, announced that New York state leadership would pursue protections for immigrant New Yorkers, including ending 287g and IGSA agreements (some local jail agreements to hold people for civil immigration violations). Hochul’s announcement is certainly a result of the relentless advocacy of immigration rights organizers across the state, including folks here in SURJ NYC!
The Dignity Not Detention Coalition, which SURJ NYC is a member of, says in response:
The Dignity Not Detention Coalition has long advocated ending County Jail contracts with ICE across New York State. The Governor’s proposal today recognizes that New Yorkers do not want ICE rounding up and detaining their loved ones and neighbors. We should not be using New York resources to facilitate cruelty. The Governor’s proposal, however, falls short of what New Yorkers deserve. First by failing to ban all collusion, in limiting her proposal to banning formal contracted collusion, and second by including a clause at the end of the bill that would repeal the entire law on July 1, 2029.
We urge Governor Hochul to quickly pass the more comprehensive protection for New Yorkers against collusion with ICE through The New York for All Act, and protect New Yorkers against a rapidly expanding network of detention centers with death-making conditions by passing the Dignity Not Detention Act…The harms of ICE detention will not magically disappear at the end of a Trump presidency. For years the Dignity Not Detention Coalition has sounded the alarm on the deplorable conditions in our county jail’s ICE units…These abuses, and the terrorization of our communities by ICE and all who work alongside them, persist, regardless of who is the President of the United States…the Dignity Not Detention Coalition will continue to push for the legislature to enact The Dignity Not Detention and New York for All Acts so we can see a day where New York State and local resources are permanently prohibited from being used by ICE to terrorize and cage our loved ones and community members.
Now is the moment to persist and permanently prevent New York from enabling ICE’s violence:
Call Governor Hochul and key state electeds to demand they pass Dignity Not Detention by joining our weekly phone zap Tuesdays at 1:00pm or making calls on your own
Use this tool to contact New York state leadership to demand they also pass New York for All
Join the SURJ NYC Immigration Justice Working Group’s February meeting to get plugged into our work to pass Dignity Not Detention and to lend support to individual community members facing ICE detention
Join our February SURJ NYC chapter meeting where we’ll be processing everything we’ve seen in the last few weeks in Minnesota and also taking action together to pressure our leaders to pass Dignity Not Detention
Onward,
SURJ NYC