Letters about Immigration

US Immigration Policy Functions by Destroying the Humanity of Those It Hurts
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 02/05/2022
A Aguilas del Desierto volunteer says while walking around the desert “Every bone has a story in these hostile and treacherous lands, our migrant brothers die trying to give their families a better future.” Think about it. Wouldn’t you do the same for your family? Read More
AsylumImmigrationRepublican PartyDemocratic Party
Tell Your Representatives: Releases Not Transfers
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 11/26/2021
Being in the US without authorization is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Our neighbors are being detained for the equivalent of a lawsuit over backpay, or a slip and fall. No other civil offenses allow pre-trial confinement. Why should immigration? Even if the person has been removed previously, the criminal charge they face would be a misdemeanor. Do we detain teenagers pre-trial when they’ve been caught trespassing or having a fake ID? Of course we don’t and we shouldn’t detain our neighbors for those offenses either. Read More
US CongressElizabeth, NJCoreCivicUS SenateJoe BidenImmigrationICE
History is Full of Immigrants. It Will Judge Us Poorly for Our Policies
Jim Price
Published: 09/24/2021
Every white person in the United States comes from immigrant stock. For those who maintain that their ancestors came in “the right way”, until the end of WWI, there was virtually no limitation on white immigration (criminals and those with infectious diseases were not admitted). There was no right way because there was no wrong way; if you were white, you got in. Read More
ImmigrationICE
Governor, please sign this bill
Jim Price
Published: 08/10/2021
The bill is a first step in getting the counties out of the "profit by incarceration” business. The people being held in immigrant detention are not being charged with any crimes; there is no reason to keep them in jail. Read More
ICEBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJPhil MurphyImmigration
We Can Do Better on Migration, and it Starts With Decriminalizing it
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 08/01/2021
Also, the U.S. has to treat migrants as refugees, understanding that the only way that families stop coming to the US is that there are good conditions in their countries to stay. No one wants to leave everything behind and do one of the most dangerous trips with their children knowing that they can even lose their lives in the attempt. No one. Read More
ImmigrationJoe BidenKamala HarrisForeign Policy
Undocumented Workers Are Paying Taxes, The Rest of Us Benefit
Ann Pompelio
Published: 07/17/2021
Can we stop complaining that undocumented workers live off government programs at taxpayers’ expense? Because they don’t. Read More
ImmigrationFederal FundingHealthcareTaxesWorkers' Rights
Tell Your Representatives, Releases Not Transfers When NJ ICE Contracts Are Ended
Elizabeth Redwine
Published: 07/09/2021
Many worked to end Essex County’s contract with ICE, but now the federal government is taking the draconian step of moving those ICE detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility to detention centers in the Deep South including Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Read More
Bergen County, NJCory BookerElizabeth, NJEssex County CommissionersEssex County, NJHudson County, NJICEImmigrationJoe BidenPhil MurphyRobert MenendezUniversal RepresentationUS SenateUS Congress
Pressure Politicians, Don’t Blame Immigrant Justice Advocates
Whitney Strub
Published: 07/09/2021
Instead of disparaging those who are fighting for immigrant justice, Mr. Moran should be screaming from the rafters at those who can influence policy. Read More
Tom MoranBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJICEImmigration
NJ Must Act to Stop ICE's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrants
Jim Price
Published: 06/27/2021
The opportunists who control both parties need to do better and come up with a path to citizenship for all. The current system—or lack of one—is deeply inhumane. Read More
ImmigrationICEPhil MurphyBergen County, NJEssex County, NJHudson County, NJ
We Must Not Balance Budgets with Blood Money
Laura Morowitz
Published: 05/18/2021
Rather than releasing these innocent people to await their fair hearings, other facilities and counties in other places are already rubbing their hands with glee, imagining how they too might profit on the backs of these people, eager to earn a little more blood money by receiving these new prisoners. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigration
Criminalizing Migrants Is Cruel and Ineffective
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 05/08/2021
Although family separation policy is not in effect anymore we incarcerate parents and force kids to fend for themselves or place them in foster care. We criminalize people who flee their countries. Countries they did not choose to be born in. NJ should stop profiting with the suffering of human beings. Read More
AsylumICEImmigration
Looking for the root causes of migration
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 04/23/2021
Therefore, the US first has to acknowledge this and apologize to the people of those countries. Then, it has to repair the damage, which is not easy because the democracies of those countries are weak and politicians corrupt. Read More
AsylumImmigrationJoe Biden
The Desperate Decision to Send Your Child Away — Alone — Hoping for a Better Life
Ann Pompelio
Published: 04/16/2021
All those parents anticipated they would never see their children again, but their children would be alive, something not guaranteed if they’d stayed put. I don’t know that desperation. Read More
ICEImmigrationJoe BidenAsylum
We Must Support Bills Forbidding ICE Contracts
Jim Price
Published: 04/01/2021
Since 2008, Essex has imprisoned immigrants for ICE; this year the contract will be worth approximately $40 million. These people are all being held in civil detention which means that they have not been charged with any crime. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationRobert MenendezNia Gill
North Jersey Counties Show A Unique Support For ICE
Anthony Lioi
Published: 11/27/2020
While some might see this merely as a bid to gain more federal funding, the decision goes beyond cost-benefit analysis. It is an expression of a bipartisan consensus that detention and deportation of immigrants promote national security. Read More
Hudson County, NJBudgetBergen County, NJFederal FundingTaxesImmigrationICEEssex County, NJNorth Jersey
Hudson And Essex County Need To Stop Enabling ICE
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 11/24/2020
There is no justification for the implementation of cruel policies like incarcerating children and not only separating them from their parents but also losing the information to make their reunification impossible. That is criminal. Let’s embrace humanity and separate us from cruelty. Read More
Bergen County, NJImmigrationICEHudson County, NJEssex County, NJ
ICE Detention Should Not Be About County Budgets
Laura Morowitz
Published: 11/20/2020
Such questions reveal the motivations of the Freeholders for what they are: a desire to continue receiving blood money, filling the county coffers with millions, while innocent asylum seekers rot away. Read More
Anthony VainieriHudson County, NJBudgetFederal FundingTaxesImmigrationICE
Can Essex County's ICE contract really be helping detainees?
Jim Price
Published: 10/04/2020
The Commissioners should stop pretending that immigrant detention is helping the immigrants. It’s not. The county should also stop collaborating with Trump and ICE. Crossing a border in hope for a better life should not be illegal. No one is illegal on stolen land. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoTaxes
A Victory for Immigrant Rights in Elizabeth
Katie Singer
Published: 07/16/2020
A money trail leading from Elberon to Kean University – as well as other prominent New Jersey institutions – has already been uncovered. We ask that the media stay on this story, and continue to highlight how Essex County residents, as just one example, profit directly from the imprisonment of immigrant bodies. Read More
ElberonICEImmigrationCoreCivicKean UniversityUnion County, NJElizabeth, NJ
Essex County Freeholder Resolution on Prisoners of ICE Just a First Step
Jim Price
Published: 06/12/2020
The resolution will prove meaningless if the freeholders don’t publicly put pressure on both ICE and County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to comply with the resolution. Comply, as in release them to their families and communities, not transfer them to some other jurisdiction that complains less. And when the pandemic ends, leave them free. Read More
COVID-19Donald TrumpEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzo
No More Police Reform Experiments, Defund the Police and Invest In Communities.
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 06/05/2020
There is no more time and there are no more lives to spare. Let us not try another wave of police reform that will not work. Divest from punitiveness and invest in services for the community. We know how to take care of each other. Let us start a new era. Read More
Criminal Justice ReformYouth JusticeDefund the PoliceImmigration
Freeholders Need To Stop Making Excuses and Collaborating With Trump’s Attacks On Our Immigrant Communities
Whitney Strub
Published: 06/01/2020
So why the reluctance to support a necessary and urgent humanitarian resolution, as COVID-19 continues to endanger the lives of detainees and jail inmates? Here’s one hypothesis: this is what happens to your moral compass when you fund an already-wealthy county through immigrant detention, as Essex, Hudson, and Bergen counties all do. Read More
Brendan GillCOVID-19Essex County, NJICEImmigrationPatricia SeboldRobert MercadoCarlos Pomares
Supporting the Release of Prisoners of ICE
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 05/22/2020
After the pandemic, we must refuse to go back. We must commit to helping communities, supporting and funding them sooner rather than over-incarcerating residents later. We need to build community not tear it apart and incarcerate the pieces. Read More
Brendan GillCOVID-19Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJail Reform
Release Vulnerable Prisoners, Save Lives
Maria Eva Dorigo
Published: 05/19/2020
According to ACLU NJ, New Jersey has the highest rate of prison deaths in the country, more than NY, CT, PA and MA combined. 544 prisoners, 600 correctional officers tested positive and 42 prisoners died. Read More
COVID-19Criminal Justice ReformICEImmigrationJail ReformPhil MurphyBergen County, NJ
We knew it would happen.
Laura Morowitz
Published: 05/03/2020
Last Monday Freeholder President Gill publicly stated that he will introduce a non-binding resolution to release all non-violent detainees. We are watching to see if this happens, and if it passes, or whether the Freeholders continue to abdicate their responsibilities, allowing innocent human beings to die while collecting millions from ICE to hold them against their will. Read More
Brendan GillCOVID-19Essex County, NJImmigrationICEJoe DiVincenzo
Can the "Best Jail" Label Stand Up to Basic Scrutiny?
Jim Price
Published: 05/01/2020
We understand that Joe D cannot release anyone on his own say-so, only ICE has the authority. But there is nothing stopping him or his freeholders from publicly calling on ICE to release the detainees. Read More
COVID-19Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoPhil Murphy
We Need To Push The Freeholders To Improve Conditions at Essex County Jail
Elizabeth Redwine
Published: 04/24/2020
It is our responsibility as residents of Essex County and New Jersey to ensure that the freeholders hear us and improve conditions at the Essex County jail for detainees. Read More
Essex County, NJImmigrationCOVID-19
We Need Negative Testing Numbers From County Jails
Matt Dragon @matt_dragon
Published: 04/10/2020
It's now too late to prevent widespread infection and death in our county jails. But these are our prisoners, your prisoners, my prisoners. We must hold our officials accountable. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJail ReformCOVID-19North JerseyCriminal Justice Reform
Will County Exec Joe DiVincenzo's COVID-19 Infection Help Him Hear The Calls To Decarcerate?
Anthony Lioi
Published: 04/03/2020
"For everyone held captive by ICE, the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 has been terrifying." Read More
Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEImmigrationJail ReformJoe DiVincenzoCOVID-19
Free The Civil Detainees
Jim Price
Published: 03/15/2020
The county could take one further step towards public safety by temporarily freeing the 800 immigrants that it currently holds in civil detention in the Newark jail. This is civilian, not criminal detention; they are not currently being held under any criminal charges. Read More
ImmigrationICEEssex County, NJ
Essex Freeholders Must Release Civil ICE Detainees
Whitney Strub
Published: 03/11/2020
With Coronavirus threatening to devastate vulnerable populations in prisons and jails (where ICE detainees are held in Newark, despite being under technically civil detention), it is a moral imperative that Joe D and the freeholders overcome their lucrative complicity in immigrant detention and publicly demand that ICE release its detainees before catastrophe strikes. Read More
Criminal Justice ReformEssex County, NJICEHealthcareImmigrationJail ReformJoe DiVincenzo
Freeholders Support Both Animals And People In Cages
Devika Gupta
Published: 02/29/2020
A supposedly progressive Board of Freeholders repeatedly follows the agenda of local politicians who are not accountable to the people who voted for them. Many residents and students have recently protested the zoo expansion, while calls to end the local ICE contracts have been ongoing for many years. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoSouth Mountain ReservationTurtle Back Zoo
When Does the Moral Cost of the ICE Dollars Exceed the Value Of Our Improved Zoo And Parks?
Kristin Shea
Published: 02/10/2020
As I enjoy these spaces, which are undoubtedly assets to our community I can’t help but think of the immigrant from Honduras who was arrested by, ICE for outstanding traffic warrants, awaiting deportation in the grimmest industrial site in Essex County. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationTurtle Back ZooSouth Mountain ReservationJoe DiVincenzo
Time for Action on ICE Policies
Devika Gupta
Published: 01/10/2020
New Jersey is known for having progressive policies, but are we known for being fast to action and instigators of national policy change? Read More
ICEImmigration
Allowing undocumented immigrants to drive legally makes everyone on New Jersey roads safe
Kristin Shea
Published: 12/15/2019
Call your representatives and let them know you want them to support drivers licenses for all. Read More
ImmigrationDrivers Licenses for All
Support Drivers Licenses For The Undocumented Workers That Surround You Daily
Laura Morowitz
Published: 12/13/2019
Refusing to issue licenses to undocumented residents will not make them magically disappear, or return to the life-threatening countries which they left in the first place. It will only make the roads less safe and offer less opportunity for these individuals to do what they came here for: to work hard to care for their families and lead a life of some dignity. Read More
Drivers Licenses for AllImmigration
Booker's New Stance on Essex County's ICE Contract Misses the Mark
Robert Yuen Latz
Published: 11/29/2019
Nationwide, immigrant detainees are seldom represented, and they have drastically better outcomes when they are. Read More
Cory BookerEssex County, NJICEImmigrationCory BookerJoe DiVincenzoUniversal Representation
A civilian task force is not justice
Nate Hutchinson
Published: 11/27/2019
A more humane jail is better than a jail in which inmates are sexually assaulted and served rotten food, but this should not be confused with justice. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzo
Elected Officials Should Listen
Devika Gupta
Published: 11/16/2019
Activists have raised two issues in NJ that demand immediate action from our elected officials. Read More
ICEEssex County, NJDrivers Licenses for AllImmigration
Essex's Immigration problem isn't Trump's fault
Nate Hutchinson
Published: 10/18/2019
Essex County holds nearly 1,000 ICE detainees, but this was not forced on us by Trump; this was the county’s choice. Read More
Essex County, NJICEImmigrationJoe DiVincenzoDonald Trump