Check out the newly-released ACLU of Georgia reference sheet on the anti-immigrant legislation introduced thus far.  The reference sheet includes information on the bills, their sponsors,  their status, and talking points.  It will be updated on a weekly basis, so check back often

Anti-Immigrant’s Rights Legislation in 2011

View Now

examples:
SB 7 – “Hurt and Run” bill
SB 27 – “Force Employers to Use Inaccurate Database” bill

When the FBI Comes Knocking

Know Your Rights

What to Do If Questioned by Police, FBI, Customs Agents, or Served with a Grand Jury Subpoena

__________________________________________________________________________

When:
6:30 – 8:00 p.m. 
Wednesday 
January 26, 2011

Where: 
East Atlanta Public Library
457 Flat Shoals Ave SE
Atlanta, GA 30316

Presenters: 
Natsu Saito
Brian Spears
Azadeh Shahshahani

Co-sponsors: 
ACLU of Georgia 
National Lawyers Guild Georgia Chapter
International Action Center – Atlanta

First Existentialist Congregation
Third Friday Film Series
On Racism, Ethnicity & White Privilege
Presents

 Friday, January 21, 2011 @ 7:30 pm

 Film Synopsis

Eric Byler & Annable Park’s documentary

Prince William County, Virginia becomes groundzero in America’s explosive battle over immigration policy when elected officials adopt a law requiring police officers to question anyone they have “probable cause” to suspect is an undocumented immigrant.

Discussion following the film will be led by Azadeh N. Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia 

First Existentialist Congregation

470 Candler Park Drive Atlanta, GA  30307

For information call 404-378-5570 

Friday, January 21, 2011 @ 7:30 pm

Film Synopsis

Eric Byler & Annable Park’s documentary

Prince William County, Virginia becomes groundzero in America’s explosive battle over immigration policy when elected officials adopt a law requiring police officers to question anyone they have “probable cause” to suspect is an undocumented immigrant.

Discussion following the film will be led by Azadeh N. Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia 

First Existentialist Congregation

470 Candler Park Drive Atlanta, GA  30307

For information call 404-378-5570

WHEN:  January 20, 07:30 PM
WHERE: PushPush Theater, 121 New St, Decatur 30030
 MAP

From the director of the Oscar-nominated My Country, My Country, The Oath is a spectacularly gripping documentary that unspools like a great political thriller. It’s the crosscut tale of two men whose fateful meeting propelled them on divergent courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme Court. Winner of Best Documentary Cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Oath offers a rare window into a hidden realm-and the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror. There will be a discussion led by Azadeh Shahshahani with the ACLU of Ga. This special screening is sponsored by the ACLU of Georgia, Georgia for Democracy, and Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. This event is free and open to the public, donations to the theater are always nice.
 

Event Website: http://www.theoathmovie.com/

ACLU of Georgia and Georgia Detention Watch release fact sheet on immigration detention: “SECURELY INSECURE: THE REAL COSTS, CONSEQUENCES & HUMAN FACE OF IMMIGRATION DETENTION” 

The current immigration system lacks clear objectives, enourages the needless confinement of individuals, overburdens an already strainged immigration system and wastes resources.

Over the past decade, there has been an alarming increase in the use of immigration detention.  From 2001 to 2010, the number of immigrants held in immigration detention each year nearly doubled, from 209,000 immigrants per year in 2001 to almost 392,000 in 2010.

Although the Obama administration has started to make efforts to fix this arbitrary use of immigration detention, change has been slow to come.  In 2009, over half of all immigrants held in detention had no criminal records, and the “most serious” convictions for nearly 20% of those with a criminal record were for traffic-related offenses.

Read more here. 

ACLU Blog of Rights

Posted by Vanita Gupta, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU and Chara Fisher Jackson, Legal Director, ACLU of Georgia at 2:49pm

Business as usual ground to a halt December 9 at nine prisons across the state of Georgia. In what is being called the largest prison strike in American history, tens of thousands of prisoners internally organized a nonviolent protest, announcing to the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) that they would neither work nor leave their cells until their requests were heard. They weren’t asking for bubble baths or afternoon tea; they were asking for basic human rights: access to education, nutrition, healthcare and compensation for their labor, among other things.

Recognizing the prisoners needed more allies, the ACLU of Georgia and coalition partners quickly stepped up to advocate for the prisoners. The ACLU and its partners met with DOC officials December 17 and sent teams into the prisons to investigate first-hand the reasons for the strike. The team’s tour of Macon State Prison on December 20 affirmed what we already knew was needed — statewide strategic solutions to combat the epidemic of mass incarceration of American men, women and children.

As we lock up more and more people at a time when governments’ budgets are shrinking, states are cutting corners when it comes to conditions inside prisons, leaving those who are locked up with no choice but to react in defense of their basic human rights. In the aftermath of the strike, the ACLU will advocate for comprehensive reform to criminal justice policies in Georgia, including a close examination of the policies that created the conditions that led to the strike. After recent reports that several prisoners were severely beaten in prisons where strikes took place, the ACLU and our partners are also investigating whether these beatings were punishments inflicted on striking prisoners by corrections officers.

Georgia is one of the largest incarcerators in the country, with one in 13 Georgians under correctional control. Unfortunately, while Georgia’s situation is extreme, it is not unique. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, at a higher rate than anywhere else in the world (yes, even China). There are approximately 1.6 million people in prisons in this country. These numbers are not a reflection of a rise in crime or population growth, but rather the result of more and more state and federal policies that incarcerate more people and keep them locked up longer. Corrections costs now account for one of every 15 state general fund discretionary dollars, and corrections spending is the second fastest-growing category of state budgets. Georgia is projected to spend $1.1 billion on corrections cost in the year 2011 alone.

Statistics like these make it impossible to ignore that the incarceration crisis is busting state budgets, and the Georgia prisoner strike illuminates the human cost just as clearly. It might seem easy to forget about the millions of people behind bars in our country, but the prisoners in Georgia have reminded us that this isn’t a viable option. Nationwide, 77 percent of state prisoners are eventually released — does it really make sense to subject these individuals to inhumane treatment while incarcerated, leading them to become a greater threat to public safety upon their release than when they were incarcerated initially? Many of these individuals spend years in prison for minor offenses such as possessing minute quantities of marijuana, stealing $500 or driving without a license. Why not give these prisoners access to educational programs in order to prepare them for re-entry into society, thereby decreasing the chances that they offend in the future?

Recognizing that our country’s incarceration levels have reached epidemic proportions and devastated communities of color, the ACLU has made the fight against mass incarceration a top organizational priority. The national ACLU and its offices in states around the country have been actively engaged in criminal justice reform for many years, but for the first time, with our Initiative to Combat Mass Incarceration, the ACLU is working to strategically coordinate this work to chip away at unjust and ineffective policies that have led to the U.S. becoming the largest jailor in the world.

Our nation’s current criminal justice system is grounded in fear, racism and the irrational notion that locking people up is the only way to increase public safety. The ACLU advocates for a system that increases public safety by treating prisoners humanely, seeking proven and cost-effective solutions to incarceration and actually rehabilitating prisoners so they are equipped to re-enter society at the end of their sentences.

In a few weeks, we will be launching our campaign’s new Web page to keep you informed of our efforts to advocate for smarter criminal justice policy in Georgia and other states. There are few greater threats to civil liberties than a criminal justice system that today deprives more Americans of their liberty than ever before — unfairly and unnecessarily, with no benefit to public safety — because of our addiction to incarceration.

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

NEW CHARGES OF INMATE BEATINGS
Reports from Prison Visits Set Off Coalition Appeal to DOC and Governor-Elect for More Access

The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights, formed to support the interests and agenda of thousands of Georgia prisoners who staged a peaceful protest and work strike initiated early last December, will host a press conference this Thursday.  The mothers and other family members of Terrance Dean and Miguel Jackson, inmates reportedly brutally beaten by guards at Macon State and Smith State Prisons in connection with the strike, will be in attendance.

The press conference follows reports of violent abuses of these men and others and the findings of fact by Coalition delegations after visits to two prisons in December.  These reports have increased fears of the targeting of and retaliation against inmates on account of their peaceful protest for their human rights and raise the urgency for immediate reform.

“These new developments have increased our fears and our legitimate call for more access to inmates,” said Elaine Brown, Co-Chair of the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners Rights.

Ed Dubose, Coalition Co-Chair and president of the NAACP of Georgia, stated, “Family members are frantic and mothers are crying and anguished after learning their loved ones have been badly injured. We cannot allow those cries to go unanswered.  Since the start of the December 9 peaceful work stoppage and appeal for reform and respect for human rights, some inmates have been targeted and others have simply disappeared. We are urging the Department of Corrections and Governor-Elect Nathan Deal to act now to halt these unjust practices and treat these men like human beings.”

Black, brown, white, Muslim, Christian, Rastafarian prisoners, including those at Augusta, Baldwin, Calhoun, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Rogers, Smith, Telfair, Valdosta and Ware State Prisons, joined a peaceful work stoppage December 9, 2010, refusing to come out of their cells as part of a petition to the corrections department.

Among concerns expressed by inmates were not being paid for their labor; being charged excessive fees for basic medical treatments; language barriers suffered by Latino inmates; arbitrary, harsh disciplinary practices; too few opportunities for education and self improvement; and unjust parole denials.

Coalition leaders attending the press conference will be Mr. Dubose, Ajamu Baraka of the U.S. Human Rights Network, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary People Society, Chara Fisher Jackson of the ACLU of Georgia, along with Abdul Sharrief Muhammad of the Nation of Islam.

The prisoners have been petitioning the corrections department for their human rights, including wages for labor, decent health care and nutritional meals, a halt to cruel and unusual punishments, and an end to unjust just parole decisions.

Contact:  concernedcoalitionga@gmail.com                                                                           
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Georgia Should Not Deny Standard Birth Certificates
 To Some Americans, Says ACLU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2011

Atlanta – The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia called on state lawmakers to reject a bill proposed today by State Senator Jack Murphy that is intended to deny Americans the fundamental protections of the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU made the call after a group of state legislators, including Georgia State Senator Jack Murphy, announced that they will introduce bills in their state legislatures that would do just that by requiring states to deny standard birth certificates to many U.S. citizen babies born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. The proposed legislation would also require all people in the U.S., whether citizens or not, to prove their status before they can receive a standard birth certificate for their baby. Currently, there is no such requirement. The bill, which Sen. Murphy says he will introduce in this upcoming legislative session, directly contradicts the long-standing 14^th Amendment guarantee that all people born in the U.S. and under its jurisdiction are citizens of the U.S. and the state in which they reside and are equal under the law.

Senator Murphy joined lawmakers from several other states who are proposing similar legislation in their states at a press conference today. If enacted, the bills are unlikely to survive legal scrutiny since the Constitution can only be changed by amendment, not by state or federal statute. 

“The legislators of Georgia should not be trying to subvert the Constitution by creating two classes of American citizenship. Citizenship should never be subject to the political and discriminatory whims of the day,” said Debbie Seagraves, ACLU of Georgia Executive Director. “The 14^th Amendment’s guarantee was a response to the pervasive discrimination of the 19^th century. The fact that legislators are still trying to create an underclass of American citizens shows that the 14^th Amendment is clearly as relevant and vital today as it was a hundred years ago.”

Adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 14^th Amendment negated one of the Supreme Court’s most infamous rulings, the Dred Scott decision of 1857, which held that neither freed slaves nor their descendants could ever become citizens. The Amendment, which conferred the rights of citizenship on all who were born in this country, including freed slaves, was enacted in response to laws passed by the former Confederate states that prevented African Americans from entering professions, owning or leasing land, accessing public accommodations, serving on juries and voting.

“The legislation proposed by State Senator Murphy is unconstitutional,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director. “Equality under the law for every person born in the United States does not depend on who your parents are or where they came from. Enacting this legislation would undermine the values of fairness and equality that the people of Georgia hold dear. Georgia lawmakers should stand up for the Constitution and reject this bill outright.”

In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the guarantee of the 14^th Amendment and affirmed the fundamental principle that children born on American soil are U.S. citizens without regard to their parents’ status. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Court held that a baby born in San Francisco to Chinese parents who were subjects of China and were prohibited by law from becoming U.S. citizens was a citizen at birth under the 14^th Amendment. This principle has been the settled law of the land for more than a century. 

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