Charleston County residents, join us in pressuring the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office to no longer allow Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (ICE) to appropriate local resources, such as the already limited space and manpower at Al Canon Detention Center, for its own ends.

ICE was created in 2003 as one component in the massive expansion of federal policing, imprisoning and surveillance powers known as the Department of Homeland Security. As an agency, ICE has zero democratic or congressional oversight and reports exclusively to the executive branch. Since its creation less than twenty years ago, ICE has grown into a bloated federal complex which together with US Customs and Border Protection maintain budgets greater than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined, despite the fact that undocumented immigration has steadily decreased for decades. In contrast to ICE insisting that its mandate is one of national security and public safety, ICE spends much of its time and budget targeting members of our community who have no criminal records and ripping apart families over traffic violations and other victimless offenses. Furthermore, the percentage of people and families targeted by ICE without criminal records has sharply increased since Trump took office. These are our neighbors, and we shouldn't help ICE force them and their families to live in terror!

Aiding this “unleashed” federal agency, Charleston County Sheriff's Office has made our county materially complicit by signing a cooperative agreement with ICE known as a 287(g). This agreement not only commits County intelligence resources, but space and material resources at the Al Canon Detention Center to ICE. Al Canon is severely understaffed and ICE detainees have already caused widespread disruptions in the ability of jail personnel to do their jobs and of lawyers to meet with their clients. In addition, these agreements cause widespread mistrust between immigrant communities and law enforcement which leads to a number of obstacles for local police. These reasons explain why we are only one of four counties across the entire state that have signed a 287g.

Please join us is pressuring the Sheriff's Office to rescind its 287g, and to stop dedicating local resources we don't have to aid this massive, expensive and unaccountable federal agency from destroying the lives of our neighbors and their families simply because they crossed a border at some point in their past without having their papers in order.