Defending against the Increasing Criminalization of
Our Immigrant Communities

Who We Are

The Problem

"Bustin' Out"

Immigrant Youth Justice Initiative (IYJI)

"Sentenced Home"

Additional Resources

BUSTIN’ OUT: Counteracting ICE Efforts to Co-opt the Criminal Justice System
for Immigration Enforcement

Enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws has traditionally been the role of the federal government.   Community safety and the apprehension and prosecution of criminals has been the job of the state and federal criminal justice systems.  Sweeping new programs launched by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in recent years are pouring billions of dollars into merging these systems.  The net effect of this merger has been to corrupt the core mission of the criminal justice system (public safety), erode civil and human rights in the United States, and to further criminalize our immigrant communities.

• “A Dangerous Merger” - IJN’s 2-page primer on ICE ACCESS programs such as Secured Communities, 287(g), and the Criminal Alien Program.


• Documentation & Citations for Information Referenced in “A Dangerous Merger"

What to Do in Response to the Corruption of Our Criminal Justice System by Immigration Enforcement?

Demand Government Oversight: Public awareness of the Criminal Alien Program and its primary tool - ICE detainers - is minimal.  Given the significant role of CAP in apprehending and criminalizing ever larger numbers of noncitizens, IJN recommends the following:

• Institute procedures to track and release data and to assess how and when detainers are being placed on noncitizen detainees.  
• Collect data assessing the 48-hour rule:  How are state and local jails made aware of this limitation on detaining nonctizens?  How does ICE monitor ICE detainers? How often and for how long do noncitizens remained unlawfully detained by state and local jails beyond the 48-hour period when ICE fails to assume custody within this mandated time frame?   
• Assess costs for communities when state criminal courts deny bail due to an ICE detainer and the noncitizen remains in jail.
• Provide data of all arrests made by 287(g) authorized police jurisdictions.

Protect Basic Human and Legal Rights: 

The collaboration of state and local jails with ICE enforcement efforts has resulted in systematic violations of the Constitutional and human rights of noncitizen detainees.   Steps must be taken to ensure that noncitizens who are arrested and booked into jail are provided with notice of their legal rights, including the right to remain silent, the right to refuse to be interviewed by ICE agents, and the right to ask to have an attorney present during ICE interviews. 

Additional Resources:

• Democracy on ICE:  Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement by Justice Strategies
• Forcing Our Blues into Gray:  Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement by the Appleseed Foundation
• More Questions than Answers About the Secured Communities Program by National Immigration Law Center
• Overview of Ways in Which Local Jurisdictions Collaborate with ICE by UT-Austin, School of Law, March 20, 2008.  Report on file with IJN. 
• “The Crimmigration Crisis:  Immigrants, Crime & Sovereign Power,” Juliet Stumpf, 56 Am. U. L. Rev. 367 (Dec. 2006).
• Series of Articles on Immigration Enforcement in the Criminal Justice System by Tom Barry of the Center for International Policy, Americas Policy Program