1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Today I’m writing to urge action to stop ICE's racial profiling of Latino residents in major cities. We’ve fought this kind of racial profiling in policing for decades, but ICE, filled with half-trained gutter-snipes that have no business being in their jobs, has brought all the racist tendencies of cops back in force. An investigative report based on over 1,200 federal habeas lawsuits found that 93% of ICE street arrests in the New York metro area targeted people from Latin American countries, even though Latinos make up only 66% of the undocumented population there. Columbia Law professor Elora Mukherjee and other legal experts say the disparity is evidence of racial profiling. This is happening in all kinds of neighborhoods — and it has to stop. The arrests are basically legalized hate crimes by ICE, since due process is often ignored, and we’ve seen the violence and deaths. People ate also simply disappearing: A pattern in dictatorial nations across the Americas. The documented abuses are serious. ICE agents arrested people because they "looked similar" to a wanted individual, then detained them anyway after confirming they had the wrong person. Many incidents of alleged use of force were recorded, every single one involving a Latino individual. As an example, one man, Diego, had his car window smashed by agents and was hospitalized. Another, Florencio, was transferred across four states before a judge ordered a bond hearing. These are not isolated mistakes — they are an ugly pattern. Demand a federal investigation into ICE's street arrest practices and use your platform to push for accountability now from ICE leaders. Thank you.