Trial begins Wed., Jan. 11, for six youth immigration activists arrested while protesting an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Secure Communities public hearing.
Through the method known as Secure Communities, when someone is arrested, that person's biometric information (fingerprints) is sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for a criminal history check. The FBI checks this information against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases. If there is a match, ICE is notified and takes appropriate enforcement steps.
"If there is a match, that doesn't mean the person is necessarily in violation of U.S. immigration law. It just means there's a record of them in our database system," said Nicole Navas, DHS spokeswoman. "The DHS database contains more than 124 million biometric records of people who have had lawful encounters with the DHS. That would include anyone who has applied for a visa, anyone ICE has deported, anyone who has applied for an immigration benefit, naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents.
DHS hosted a series of public hearings across the country on the Secure Communities program to gain feedback from the community. During the Chicago hearing in August, members of Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL), Nuestra Voz and the Latin@ Youth Action League (LYAL) shared their opinions on the program and called for attendees to walk out.
"The meetings were useless because the government wasn't really going to listen to the community, and the way they've been enforcing stuff has been really bad," said Tania Unzueta, an organizer with IYJL.
After leaving the meeting, six activists—Fanny Lopez-Martinez, Jorge Mena, Arianna Salgado, Ireri Unzueta Carrasco, Carla Navoa and Miguel Martinez—formed a circle on West Washington Street, blocking traffic. Police removed them from the street several times before the activists sat in an entrance to the I-94 expressway. Police asked them to move, and upon refusing, the activists were arrested.
Mena and Unzueta Carrasco have been named among the Windy City Times 30 Under 30 for their work on LGBT undocumented immigrant rights.
"There's been a lot of LGBT leadership within the undocumented immigrant movement," said Unzueta. "Almost every instance of civil disobedience we've done, there's been LGBT people involved. It's something I've never seen in the past, LGBT people at the forefront of these civil disobedience actions and rallies"
The activists, all undocumented immigrants, will plead not guilty to charges of reckless conduct and blocking traffic. They contend, "their arrest was necessary to reveal the harm that Secure Communities programs cause communities," according to a IYJL press release.
"Technically, the government could have the activists deported," said Unzueta. "We haven't had any contact with ICE, as of now. We don't think they're in any danger of being deported because this is such a public action."
The defendants will rely on the "necessity defense," an argument anti-war activists spearheaded in the 1980s. To successfully argue this defense, they must prove the protest action is directly connected with the laws being protested.
Thirty-nine percent of individuals arrested through Secure Communities report having a United States citizen spouse or child, impacting approximately 88,000 families, according to "Secure Communities by the Numbers," a research report by Berkley Law School. Two percent of non-citizens arrested through Secure Communities are granted relief from deportation by an immigration judge, as compared to 14 percent of all immigration court respondents.
"[The government] tells us Secure Communities is catching criminal aliens, but the way they are defining criminal is something like a traffic stop makes you a criminal," said Unzueta.
