I'm excited to share this art piece which I just finished for the Immigrant Defense Project (IDP) based in New York. IDP promotes fundamental fairness for immigrants accused or convicted of crimes.
Through my collaboration with IDP, I learned an interesting fact about how deportations affect New Yorkers in particular. Over 20 percent of New York State residents are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census, and many are non-citizens who may be easily subject to detention and deportation for criminal convictions.
One of the ways that IDP is working to ensure fairness in the legal process for immigrants is by challenging overreaching government interpretations of criminal-immigration laws through impact litigation.
Today, when jailing immigrants has become a hugely profitable business in which immigrants pay a heavy price (and often get their due-process rights violated), it is important to have organizations like IDP challenging the rampant racial profiling laws that are leading to dramatic increase in deportations. Early in 2011, IDP was one of the groups that petitioned NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to suspend the Secure Communities (S-COMM) Program in NY state, which he did in June 2011, stating: “There are concerns about the implementation of the program as well as its impact on families, immigrant communities and law enforcement in New York."
While this was a victory for the state of New York, the Obama Administration and ICE refused to listen to the critiques of the program and instead announced it would bypass state governments and unilaterally terminate all of its S-Comm Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) with states nationwide. This meant that the S-Comm program would be forced on every single state in the country.
The S-Comm program is one of the main culprits behind the more than 1,000,000 deportations that have taken place since President Obama (Deporter in Chief) took office. You can learn more about the devastating effects of this program by watching PBS's groundbreaking documentary "Lost In Detention," a film by Maria Hinojosa that exposes the physical, mental and sexual abuse taking place in detention centers around the country. click here to watch the full film
The Poster Design
Because changes to our immigration law have dramatically raised the stakes of a noncitizen's criminal conviction, IDP works to ensure that noncitizens accused of crimes receive accurate legal advice. The poster makes reference to a landmark case, Padilla v. Kentucky.
The Supreme Court issued a historic decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, deciding that the U.S. Constitution requires criminal defense attorneys to advise their clients of immigration consequences of their criminal charges.
The posters will be displayed in detention centers with the intent of calling attention to this law in particular. With the help of IDP, I designed a visually engaging poster meant to show the diginity of migrants and to speak to people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds.
The bars in the background symbolize detention. The two large figures are shown as having a dialogue. And on the foreground, is a family. So often, the cost of broken immigration laws is the separation of families - therefore, it was important to symbolize family unity.
Other Resources from IDP
IDP has some great resources for artists looking to learn more about detention and deporation. Be sure to check out their Deportation 101 handbook. Since the immigration system can seem inaccessible due to deportation-related jargon, the guide includes a glossary of terms, as well as a look at the government systems and departments that deal with detention and deportation. The guide helps readers understand the different institutions that play a role in deportation.
What I found most interesting whas the book's timeline that gives some historical context for our current political landscape - including a snapshot of policies, legislation, and case law that have shaped the current detention and deportation system since 1980.
