During the last yr and a half, now we have all witnessed how the Trump administration has carried out a mass detention and deportation system fueled by racist, xenophobic and false narratives and white supremacist theories, subjecting migrants, asylum seekers and refugees to quite a few human rights violations.  

That’s why Amnesty Worldwide calls on you to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) company. The world has witnessed the abuses of ICE, and it’s time to urgently put an finish to these abuses. 

Amnesty Worldwide’s new report, “We had whistles, they’d weapons”: Human Rights Violations in U.S. Immigration Enforcement Operations and the Case to Abolish ICE, paperwork in depth violations throughout 4 cities below siege—Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans and Washington, DC—by ICE, Border Patrol, and different federal brokers.  

These embrace:  

• Racial discrimination, arbitrary arrests and detention 

• Harassment, intimidation, degrading remedy, and illegal use of power by federal brokers

• Use of deadly power and illegal killings by federal brokers, which ought to be investigated as extrajudicial executions   

• Repression of peaceable protests and use of much less deadly weapons, together with tear fuel and pepper spray, generally close to youngsters  

• Illegal surveillance and facial recognition expertise  

• Enforcement close to faculties, medical amenities, homes of worship, and different delicate places 

• Inhumane detention circumstances and denial of due course of, which ought to be investigated as torture 

• Illegal incommunicado detention and potential acts of enforced disappearance  

These violations are usually not remoted incidents however a part of a broader sample of how immigration enforcement is carried out. ICE has turn out to be extra emboldened, extra merciless, extra abusive, and extra unaccountable than ever earlier than. ICE brokers had been shielded from accountability and even overtly supported by the Trump administration of their actions.

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: IT’S TIME TO ABOLISH ICE. 

No quantity of defunding, coaching, or disciplinary measures shall be sufficient. The extent and scale of the abuses and failures we documented result in just one potential street to justice: ICE have to be abolished. 

Top-of-the-line methods to do this is for Congress to instantly take steps to defund ICE and rescind its present funding to be re-invested into applications that assist all of our communities thrive.  

A brand new invoice known as the Soften ICE Act is an important first step to do precisely that. We’re particularly calling on members of the Home of Representatives to cosponsor the Soften ICE Act (H.R.7190), which might take away ICE’s authority to detain immigrants, finish all present immigration detention contracts inside two years of enactment, and forestall the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) from coming into into any new contracts with any entity for amenities to detain or surveil immigrants. H.R.7190 would additionally redirect billions of taxpayer {dollars} in the direction of community-based companies that help working households.  

Congress: YOU have the facility and accountability to cease these abuses.  

America authorities should uphold the human rights and dignity of all individuals, no matter their immigration standing. What you do now shall be remembered by future generations—take a stand as we speak as a result of you will have the facility to take action.  Our communities’ lives and rights rely upon it.