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Immigrant Rights

Updated 06.30.10

In response to continuing concerns over Arizona’s unconstitutional law allowing police to request documents from anyone who may appear to be undocumented, the ACLU of Ohio issued a travel advisory and wallet card for Ohioans to protect themselves from unfair racial profiling and inform them of their rights when stopped by police. Click here to view the press release and materials. En Espanol.

Laws passed targeting immigrants are eventually extended to all citizens; for this reason, basic civil liberties, like the right to due process, must be protected for everyone.

Every time the government wants to expand its power it begins by taking away the rights of immigrants – imposing onerous surveillance, identification requirements, registration, police stops, and detention.

Immigration has been used as a political weapon to exclude whatever group is currently in disfavor – and it has often been based on a racist and xenophobic rationale. History is rife with examples:

  • During the depression of the 1840s, mobs hostile to immigrant Irish Catholics burned down a convent in Boston and rioted in Philadelphia.
  • Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, one of the U.S.'s first immigration laws, to keep out people of Chinese origin.
  • During the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized. Many were deported without a hearing.
  • In 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent had their homes and other property confiscated, and were interned in camps until the end of World War II. During the same period, many Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were excluded under regulations enacted in the 1920s.

While the Constitution does not give people the right to enter the U.S., it protects them once they are here from discrimination based on race and national origin and from arbitrary treatment by the government.

What’s happening in Ohio

Electronic Verification
Ohio House Bill 184 would require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to establish whether workers are qualified for employment. Read the ACLU's letter to the editor in the HamiltonJournal News, outlining problems with this system. The federal government has admitted that the database is overrun with errors and could result in millions of citizens and legal residents being blocked from employment.

Cincinnati Immigration Court
On April 6, 2009 the Cincinnati Immigration Court was closed, with all matters referred to Cleveland. Learn more about the problems associated with this consolidation.

Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws
Ohio's S.B. 35 would allow local police to enforce immigration laws, potentially leading to mistaken arrests, racial profiling, and the misdirection of funds away from basic protective services. Read the ACLU press release.

In 2007, the Ohio Attorney General issued an opinion advising that Ohio law permits county sheriffs to enter into agreements with the federal government to enforce criminal violations of immigration law, but Ohio law prohibits sheriffs from enforcing civil violations of immigration law.


What’s Happening Nationally

The battle over Arizona SB 1070 has renewed calls for Congress to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  In April 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070, an anti-immigrant law that effectively requires police to engage in racial profiling. MALDEF, the ACLU, and the National Immigration Law Center announced that they will sue to block the law from going into effect. Read more

The ACLU believes immigration policies can be reformed and still respect civil liberties. To that end, the ACLU opposes any policies that include:

  • mandatory detention and/or deportation of anyone that an immigration officer thinks is an undocumented person;
  • requiring or encouraging local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws;
  • indefinitely detaining an undocumented person who can't be returned to his/her home country of origin for political or other reasons;
  • removing constitutional due process protections and access to the courts for immigrants;
  • requiring employers to stand in the place of immigration agents by verifying worker eligibility using federal databases;
  • requirements for a biometric national ID.


Resources

Immigration advocacy toolkit from the ACLU of Ohio

National ACLU pamphlet on immigrant rights

Immigrant rights on the national ACLU website

What to Do If You're Stopped by the Police, our popular bust card 
Print a version for distribution. Also available in Spanish.
 
American Immigration Lawyers Association
 
American Immigration Council
 
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Pew Research Center provides information on a variety of issues, including immigration.

On July 26 2010, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU released a joint report on people with mental disabilities in the US immigration system. The investigation, conducted in 12 facilities across 9 states, included interviews with over 100 people, including 40 current and former detainees and 3 immigration judges.

Read immigration press releases and articles in our News Center.