A Climate of Fear - Executive Orders to Remove Restrictions on ICE to Enter Schools, Churches, and Hospitals
From the desk of Jonathan Fung, Director of Legal Services
Executive Orders to Remove Restrictions on ICE to Enter Schools, Churches, and Hospitals
Over the course of the last week, dozens of executive orders, many involving immigration, were signed by President Trump. Although many orders will take time to come into effect, one such order has resulted in an internal memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security, removing restrictions the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, has when considering "sensitive locations" that involve children, places of worship, or healthcare, and opening up such locations to immigration enforcements and raids based on the discretion of local ICE offices.
The immediate effect of these combined orders has been to create a climate of fear among our immigrant neighbors, separating them from their communities and support networks while threatening to criminally prosecute those who would stand beside them. One client of the IRC reached out to tell us that her children were so terrified that they all missed school last week, and asked for reassurance to know if it was going to be OK to continue attending.
We unequivocally reject the characterization of our immigrant neighbors as "invaders" and "criminals," the campaign of coercion from the federal government to force local communities into becoming part of its pipeline to imprisonment, and want to remind everyone that private institutions, individuals, and even states and local governments have rights that cannot be waved away by threats or ill-educated interpretations of the U.S. Constitution.
To that end, we encourage all of our supporters to remind their places of work and community gatherings of their rights, and to help develop a policy among staff so that both your employees and members of the public can be reassured that there is clarity and consistency in how your organization will react in such a situation, and protect the rights of your own constituents to the maximum extent allowed by the law:
NILC Guide for Employers:
NILC Guide for Healthcare Providers:
https://www.nilc.org/resources/healthcare-provider-and-patients-rights-imm-enf/
Public Counsel's Guide for Nonprofits, with template policies (For New York, but the advice and template are generally applicable to all organizations):