Everyone—regardless of immigration status—has constitutional rights. That includes immigrants who have had contact with the criminal legal system.

But here's the thing: The arrest-to-deportation pipeline hurts all of us. When administrations use tools to broaden who is or isn’t deserving of fairness and due process, we all lose.

IIRIRA laid the foundation for our current situation, using any contact with the criminal legal system as a basis for detention and deportation - often mandatory. It justified criminalizing immigrants, stripped them of their basic rights, and vastly increased the # of people facing deportation.

So how did we get here? IIRIRA used the criminal legal system to drastically expand the incarceration of immigrants, create a fast track for deportations without due process and enable local police and ICE collusion.

The TL;DR: IIRIRA *is* the arrest-to-deportation pipeline

About 7 million people have been deported since IIRIRA went into effect. That number doesn’t account for those who’ve been detained and deported since the start of Trump’s second term.

In comparison, about 2 million people were deported in the 100 years between 1892 and 1996.

This report is a reminder of why we cannot wait a day longer to pass the NYC Trust Act (Int 214) - so NYers who've been harmed by violations of our sanctuary laws have an opportunity to seek relief in court.

Tell @council.nyc.gov members to pass it immediately: bit.ly/ICEOUT-214

3/ We obtained over a thousand pages of emails exchanged between DOC and ICE between 2015 and 2019, and what we found were regular illegal communications about people in DOC custody, disregard for the rights of those detained, and more: www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/the-immigran...

2/ We’ve long documented DOC’s violations of sanctuary laws - recently in the 2023 release of email correspondence from a FOIL we filed with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration that showed both practice and culture of collusion with ICE to undermine NYers’ due process and funnel them to ICE.

The protesting officials have 3 demands:
- Getting ICE out of New York and release all immigrants detained at Federal Plaza
- Calling on state lawmakers to Albany to pass the New York for All act
- Calling on city lawmakers to pass the NYC Trust Act for NYC to stop helping ICE

@immdefenseproject.bsky.social: “Together we are clear and unequivocal: our city’s historic sanctuary laws ensure that the rights of New Yorkers are protected and that our city resources help all New Yorkers thrive.”

Families for Freedom: “However, it is crucial to acknowledge that conditions at Rikers Island continue to worsen. As a native New Yorker with immigrant roots, we believe that freedom in New York means everyone should feel safe, regardless of where they were born."

@thenyic.bsky.social: “...the NYS Supreme Court has offered a vital degree of protection for our immigrant neighbors. Thousands of NYers will no longer face the prospect of detention and deportation because they were sent to Rikers after being simply accused – not convicted – of a crime.”

@katalcenter.org: "We hail this ruling; instead of working with ICE to further criminalize immigrants, the Mayor should be working to shut down the deadly jail complex and protect all New Yorkers.”

The Bronx Defenders: “With this ruling, the court shut the door on this politically motivated and entirely baseless attempt to strengthen the arrest-to-deportation pipeline in New York City."

@legalaidnyc.bsky.social: “The Executive Order was a clear violation of New York City’s sanctuary protections and would have opened the door to racial profiling, wrongful deportations, and constitutional violations by ICE on Rikers Island.”

@maketheroadny.bsky.social: “This decision is a victory that we should never have had to win in the first place. Allowing ICE presence at Rikers would have opened the doors to further terrorizing immigrant New Yorkers and encouraged the current administration’s mass deportation plans"