Organizing
Detained removal defense can help one detained Hoosier immigrant and their family/community at a time. However, ultimately, Mariposa believes that organizing to fight the ICE Detention system at a macro level is CRITICAL to stopping the injustices that ICE detention causes every day. Organizing is central to the Mariposa team’s understanding of the theory of change, movement lawyering, and true solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. Read more about our organizing partners and the campaigns that Mariposa is involved with:
COMMUNITIES NOT CAGES INDIANA COALITION
In the last decade, there have been multiple attempts by private corporations to create ICE detention facilities in Indiana; thankfully local communities and regional groups have fought back and these plans have not been successful. The only facility where immigrants are held in ICE custody in Indiana is Clay County Justice Center (“Clay County Jail”) in Brazil, Indiana, which began in 2013.
In May 2021, the Clay County Jail announced plans to construct an expansion to add 100-125 additional beds to the jail in order to hold additional individuals in ICE custody under their contract with ICE. An informal coalition made up of individuals from Cosecha Indiana, Mariposa Legal, Greater Lafayette Immigrant Allies, and regional groups like the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (“ICIRR”) and the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants (“ICDI”) emerged to fight this expansion effort. Our petition to stop the expansion garnered over 46,000 signatures. Over time, this Coalition evolved into a more formal coalition called the Communities Not Cages Indiana Coalition.
While Clay County Commissioners ultimately voted to green-light the construction of the expansion in March 2022, our Coalition remains steadfastly opposed to this increase in detention and continues to call for the termination of this County’s contract with ICE. To learn more about this work, check out some of the resources below. If you would like to get involved, email Mariposa Organizer Ali Daoud Smith at ali@mariposalegal.org.
More Info on the Clay County Fight:
White Paper: ICE Expansion in Clay County, IN: White Paper for Abolitionists by UChicago Masters of Social Work Student Sarah Tomas Morgan (Fall 2022)
Zine: ICE Detention Abolition: Or Rather How Do We Abolish ICE Detention Given Its Flexibility, Contracting Schemes and Relative Mobility Across States (Spring 2022) by UChicago Law Student Alice Thompson (Spring 2022)
DETention WATCH NETWORK
Our national organizing partners is the Detention Watch Network. Check them out at detentionwatch.org