STOP THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF PROTEST! Tuesday 5pm at Obama Campaign HQ in Burlington! NO MORE DEPORTATIONS. NO MORE S-COMM!

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Dear Migrant Justice friends and allies,

We just learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is activating Secure Communites (S-COMM) in Vermont this Tuesday! This widely discredited and disastrous program is spreading the Arizona "Poli-migra" model throughout the country by blurring the lines between police and immigration agents and wreaking havoc on immigrant communities nationwide.  S-COMM has helped Obama earn the shameful but well deserved title of Deporter in Chief by breaking all previous records for deportations of any US President!  So, what can we do?

TAKE ACTION!

1) Join us tuesday 5/22 at 5pm in Burlington at the Obama Campaign Headquarters at 209 Battery St, near corner of Battery and Maple, to protest the imposition of Secure Communities in VT and STOP THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF! 

2) Can't come? Solidarity Actions needed!

1) Join us tuesday at 5pm in Burlington at the Obama Campaign Headquarters to protest the imposition of Secure Communities in VT and STOP THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF! 

In Vermont, we are working hard to build truly humane and just communities for all our neighbors, regardless of immigration status. We are organizing so that, regardless of the direction of the federal government, we build communities that value the inherent dignity and human rights of all! And we are making progress. We refuse to let S-COMM criminalize and dehumanize our Vermont communities!

As you probably know S-COMM has sparked massive protest and powerful community organizing for immigrant rights across the country including here in Vermont.  So, in this spirit we invite you to join us!

WHAT: STOP THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF PROTEST!

WHERE: OBAMA'S BURLINGTON CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS (209 Battery St.)

WHEN: TUESDAY MAY 22 5PM

* Join us beforehand on Monday 5/21 at 6pm at 294 N. Winooski for a teach-in on S-COMM. Learn why we need to protest its imposition on Vermont and join us to  put the brakes on S-COMM in Vermont! We will follow the teach-in with sign and art making begining at 8pm to get ready for the protest. You can also come to the office tuesday from 1-4pm to help get ready!

BACKGROUND ON OBAMA'S (in)SECURE COMMUNITIES LEGACY AND WHY PROTEST THE IMPOSITION OF THIS DISASTROUS INHUMANE PROGRAM?

S-comm has been imposed on Vermont by the Obama Administration, despite its record deportations of hundreds of thousands of hard working people across the country under the pretext of targetting 'the most dangerous criminals'. Parents who drove without a license have been deported by S-COMM. Mothers who have sold a $10.00 phone card to neighbors without a business permit have been deported by S-COMM.  S-COMM is simply not doing what it claims but it is, however, helping the government fulfill its agressive and unprecented deportation quotas of 400,000 per year. Despite all these proven failures its coming to VT and we are told there is nothing we can do about it.

There has been absolutely no consultation or public dialogue in Vermont about bringing S-COMM here - in fact our own government and law enforcement community haven't even been consulted!  That's right--the feds are pushing a program that Vermont must adopt, that will have huge repercussions on our lives, and at the same time incur local expenses and its all being done  with out any public debate or dialogue!

Immigrant communities across the country have organized to denoucne the record-breaking deportation legacy of the Obama Administration – nearly 400,000 a year – and stop “Secure Communities” from tearing apart the lives of friends, neighbors, mothers, fathers, and children.

Join us on Tuesday at 5pm in Burlington to join the movement for a nationwide termination of S-Comm as it:

• Criminalizes immigrant communities
• Tramples on civil and human rights
• Forces states to take on the costs of doing the flawed work of ICE
• Breaks trust between police and immigrant communities because police interactions lead to deportations.
• Extends the power, authority and resources of the real big government we should fear-the militiraztion of our society and war on immigrants

Obama was elected, in part, by courting latino and immigrant votes and promising bold action for Comprehensive Immigration Reform as an extension of a civil rights movement.  While it is convenient and easy to blame the Republicans the sad and cruel reality is that Obama has simply not chosen to prioritize immigration reform. He has instead prioritized deportations!

4 years later after broken promises where are we with federal immigration policy? Obama has:

• Wasted billions of dollars to criminialize and deport hardworking families
• Totally failed to enact comprehensive and just immigration reform and instead pursued aggressive deportation quotas of 400,000 per year
• Broken all previous deportation records including that of Bush w/ well over 1.4 million deportations
• Forced states to adopt the failed and flawed federal S-COMM at local expense without regard for transparency, public debate, or expenses incurred
• Pushed the 1% agenda with Wall Street driven free trade policies that cause migration by displacing entire communties forcing them to migrate only to be criminalized and deported

Across the country immigrant communities are orgainzing to say "YOU CAN'T COURT US AND DEPORT US!" We join them on Tuesday adding, "You can't have your milk and deport us too!" The bitter irony is that our entire food system (and economy) is completely dependent on immigrant labor. The failure of our goverment to deal with the reality that our society is sustained by millions without basic rights cannot go unchallenged. 

That is exactly what we are doing here in Vermont by moving towards driver's licenses regardless of immigraiton status, creating a new Bias-Free-Policing Policy, and creating A Universal Health Care system that truly is universal and inclusive of all our communities. We can't let the Obama Administration and federal goverment continue to fail so many and reward so few. We cannot let the federal government stand in the way of creating a humane and just Vermont!

Join us at 5pm on Tuesday to SAY NO TO THE DEPORTER IN CHIEF and help organize to stop Obama's deportation agenda in Vermont!

2) Can't come? Join us in solidarity and email/or call Senators Leahy, Sanders and Representative Welch to stop the DEPORTER IN CHIEF.

• READ THROUGH THIS EMAIL. VISIT OUR LINKS AND DEVELOP YOUR OWN CONNECTION TO WHY WE NEED TO REJECT S-COMM

WRITE/CALL and BE SURE TO SHARE

• OUTRAGE WITH OBAMA'S DEPORTATION LEGACY (1.4 MILLION IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED IS MORE THAN ANY PRESIDENT IN HISTORY). BROKEN IMMIGRATION REFORM PROMISES. IMPOSITION OF WIDELY DISCREDITED INHUMANE S-COMM PROGRAM ON VT
• AKS TO WORK WITH THEM TO: 1) CANCEL SECURE COMMUNITIES; 2) DELIVER ON LONG BROKEN PROMISES FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

SAMPLE LETTER/PHONE SCRIPT:

Dear Senator Leahy, Sanders, and Representative Welch,

We are busy in Vermont these days building communities that value the human rights of all, regardless of immigration status and we need your help.  We are working successfully in Vermont to promote the human right to equal access to health care, transportation, and freedom from discrimination, regardless of immigration status, in spite of the federal goverment.

I am deeply concerned and alarmed that the Secure Communities program is being imposed on Vermont on Tuesday by the Obama Administration.     We in Vermont, including our Governor and our law enforcement, have not even been consulted with nor have we had a chance to have a public dialogue about this broken deportation scheme that is tearing apart hard working families and communities across the country.

Four years  after Obama's broken promises for bold action for immigration reform where are we? Instead of reform he:

• Wasted billions of dollars to criminalize and deport hardworking families
• Totally failed to enact fair and just immigration reform and instead pursued aggressive deportation quotas of 400,000 per year
• Broken all previous deportation records including that of Bush w/ well over 1.4 million deportations
• Forced states to adopt the failed and flawed federal S-COMM at local expense without regard for transparency, public debate, or expenses incurred
• Pushed the 1% agenda with Wall Street driven free trade policies that cause migration by displacing entire communities forcing them to migrate only to be criminalized and deported

Obama did not fight for his promised comprehensive and fair immigration reform deepening a serious HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND IN VT that set the stage for what is happening in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and elsewhere.  Here in Vermont our hard working neighbors feel like prisoners as they work behind the illusion and myth of Vermont's peaceful and open working landscapes. Some of our friends pass as many as 2-3 years without ever having stepped foot off the farm. I am ashamed that this is our Vermont. We can't go on like this and must do better and act with consistent urgency.

There is opportunity and need to act now. I am writing to ask that you work to:

1) End (don't mend) S-COMM at the federal level and;

2) Fight with the same passion and power you have for other issues in order to push the Obama administration to put comprehensive and just immigration reform at the top of your agenda.

Thank you,

Name, VT Address, phone number, email