ACLU starts "immigrants' voices" campaign amid Trump deportation threats
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Video still from ACLU's "Letters to America" campaign. Photo: Courtesy of the ACLU's Border Humanity Project
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a new multimedia campaign in southern border states highlighting the stories of asylum seekers who have fled Mexico, El Salvador and Cameroon.
Why it matters: Immigrant rights and civil liberties groups are preparing a public relations and court challenge blitz ahead of President-elect Trump's mass deportation plan in hopes of slowing down immigrant removals.
- The ACLU — the nation's largest civil liberties organization — has the reach to mobilize activists, with chapters in many states and the ability to rally less-funded grassroots groups.
- Protests could put pressure on Democratic-controlled states and cities to refuse to assist the Trump administration's mass deportation push.
Driving the news: The ACLU's Border Humanity Project unveiled Tuesday its "Letters to America" campaign that uses the voices and images of immigrants who have escaped violence in their former countries.
- A video previewed by Axios shows an immigrant mother telling her story by reading a letter to the U.S. public, ending with pleas not to force her and her daughter to return to a violent village overrun by gangs.
- The video spots will run on digital sites in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Jonathan Blazer, director of border strategies at the ACLU, tells Axios the campaign seeks to humanize immigrants beyond the caricatures and stereotypes politicians use.
- "There've been falsehoods and lies that are most easily dispelled when you actually meet and hear directly from people about their stories and why they come," he said.
- Blazer says the immigrants tell Americans they were not coming to cause harm but to contribute and give back.
State of play: Trump has repeatedly and falsely blamed the jump in violent crime during the pandemic on immigrants.
- He and his surrogates have said mass deportations will begin with removing immigrants with the most violent criminal past — something the Biden administration is already doing.
- The newly installed House on Tuesday passed the Laken Riley Act, which would require the detention of undocumented immigrants arrested for certain non-violent crimes such as theft.
Reality check: Less than 0.5% of the 1.8 million cases in immigration courts during the past fiscal year — involving about 8,400 people — included deportation orders for alleged crimes other than entering the U.S. illegally, an Axios review of government data found.
- Immigrants arrested for homicides also accounted for less than 1% of "at-large" arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the last six years, another Axios review found.
- New data released last month by the Brookings Institution suggests that the homicide surge of 2020 was primarily driven by men and teen boys who were either laid off or saw their schools close during pandemic shutdowns.
The intrigue: The ACLU last month released details of its "Firewall for Freedom" initiative, which advises cities, states, and district attorneys on how they can limit collaboration with federal immigration authorities.
- The plan suggests that governors and legislatures can protect immigrant communities through legal assistance funds, pardon processes and new laws.
The bottom line: The federal government can't enact any large-scale deportation of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants without the cooperation of state and local law enforcement.
- To get that support, the incoming Trump administration will need broad public backing in blue states like New Mexico and California and major blue cities like Los Angeles and Houston.
