Abolish ICE NY-NJ Delivers Platform Outlining Vision for Immigrant Safety & Justice Amid COVID-19

Media Contacts: Rebekah Entralgo, rentralgo@freedomforimmigrants.org

NEW JERSEY - Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill to implement emergency public health credits in order to release thousands of people nearing the end of their sentences from incarceration during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While this legislation is an important step toward reducing detention levels to comply with public health guidance and ensure the safety of our communities, nothing in the bill prevents non-citizens eligible for release from being transferred into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.

Immigrant rights advocates caution that this legislation must be coupled with an immediate end to transfers from state, local, and federal jails and prisons to ICE detention and an end to expansion of ICE detention in New York and New Jersey. With the first releases under the New Jersey Public Health Emergency Credit Bill scheduled for November 4, we must send a clear message that urgent action is needed to protect our communities from re-detention.

In response, the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition has delivered a platform to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy & New York Governor Andrew Cuomo outlining our vision for immigrant safety and justice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

The platform, which is endorsed by 101 organizations, calls on the Governors to:

Immediately enact executive orders halting the expansion of immigrant prisons in New York and New Jersey and suspending transfers to immigration authorities, including transfers from New York and New Jersey state Department of Corrections to ICE detention.
Grant immediate clemency and parole to immigrants incarcerated in state custody without transferring them to ICE.
Hold ICE accountable for their egregious mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic by publicly joining national calls in support of defunding ICE’S detention and enforcement operations and calling on New York and New Jersey state attorneys generals to investigate and, where appropriate, bring actions against ICE for its violations of national detention standards and public health protocols.
Assist the release of New York and New Jersey residents in immigration detention by extending state-funded legal counsel to immigrant populations and making funding available to community-run immigration bond fund organizations.
Grant economic relief and expand services to all marginalized communities, including undocumented workers and Black, brown, and working poor residents.
Take steps to permanently reduce all imprisoned populations.

The Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition issued the following statement:

“We are thrilled that S2519 was signed, but remain concerned for the safety of the hundreds of people incarcerated in New Jersey’s prisons and jails at risk of ICE detention. We are also concerned that those released from the state’s prisons and jails will face retention by ICE. Our fear is not only rooted in the reality that ICE is actively seeking to detain about another thousand people in New York and New Jersey alone, but also that those recently released from jails and prisons are among those targeted by ICE.

As a third wave of COVID-19 emerges across the country, we remind Gov. Murphy that he presided over the nation’s largest percentage of COVID-19 deaths in prisons and jails. ICE detains our community and loved ones in those same notorious, unsafe facilities. New Jersey and New York elected officials must take action to protect public health and safety of those subjected to ICE's racist profiling. To that end, we urge both Governors to enact the proposed platform to protect public health and safety.”

The Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition is comprised of organizations including Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, Pax Christi New Jersey, Doctors for Camp Closures, Freedom For Immigrants, North New Jersey DSA, NYC DSA, First Friends of NJ NY and others.