Op-ed: SF Chronicle -Open Forum: Stopping ICE raids begins with ending immigration detention

Original posting

By Hamid Yazdan Panah July 16, 2019

Last week, the threat of raids imposed by the Trump administration sent waves of panic throughout immigrant communities in the Bay Area and across the nation. There is little doubt that Trump’s strategy of fearmongering is designed to inflict a sense of terror on the immigrant community and paralysis on policy makers and advocates.

As an immigration attorney and advocate, I am continually faced with the question: What can we do to stand up to Trump’s bullying and blackmail?

The answer to this question must be rooted in and shaped by the values we hold dear. It is not enough to simply oppose raids; what we want is an end to the unjust policies that separate families and lock up immigrants.

The best way to break through the cloud of fear and panic kicked up by Trump is to focus on the infrastructure that is being built to allow it to take place.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are inextricably linked to the issue of immigration detention, and the best way to fight raids is to limit ICE’s ability to expand and outsource detention in California. The closure of detention facilities has slowed down ICE’s ability to conduct mass deportations in Northern California.

Senior ICE officials have admitted as much, pointing to the loss of bed space in California as a “challenge” to their operations.

ICE needs to ensure it has the bed space it needs to carry out mass removal operations and detention. That’s why the agency has gone to great lengths in its attempt to expand immigrant detention in California.

Advocates have accused ICE of colluding with for-profit detention companies to undermine California state law and sidestep federal contracting rules. The majority of immigrant detention facilities are now outsourced to private companies.

As advocates we must also target the companies that are profiting from raids, arrests, and immigrant detention. This starts with calling for an end to the use of private detention facilities to detain and house immigrants.

It is no coincidence that private prison stocks soared in the wake of Trump’s election. These corporations are already accused of participating in human trafficking and being sued for paying immigrants $1 dollar a day to work in their for-profit facilities.

The movement to confront private detention has gained considerable momentum. Illinois recently moved to ban private immigrant detention facilities, and presidential candidates, including California’s Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have incorporated the abolition of private prisons and detention facilities into their platforms.

These companies operate their facilities with less transparency, accountability and oversight than governmental actors. They also have the financial motivation necessary to do this administration’s dirty work.

The recent deaths of immigrants in detention, the inhumane conditions that they are being kept in, and the capacity these private for-profit facilities provide ICE in conducting raids present a compelling call to action for us to push back on their use.

Initially, the idea for national ICE operations was challenged by former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and former ICE deputy director Ronald Vitiello because of “operational and logistical” concerns. They were not concerned about the moral qualms of the operations, even if we are.

But understanding and challenging ICE’s operational and logistical considerations can provide us with a helpful way to effectively push back on policies that destroy communities and stoke national divisions.

Our response to immigration raids, racist rhetoric and divisive policies must start from a place of power over panic.

We have the power to protect our home and community as a state. It is time that we use it.

Hamid Yazdan Panah is an immigration attorney and represents a coalition of organizations providing rapid-response legal services, representation for detained immigrants, and statewide policy leadership.