In a shocking move, Contra Costa sheriff David Livingston kicked immigrant support group CIVIC (Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement) in what the group says is a retalitaory action after they drew attention to conditions in the jail, which houses immigrant detainees on a contract with ICE.
90 organizations, including Oakland Privacy, signed a letter objecting to the expulsion of CIVIC from the West County Immigration Detention Center.
The City Council is on the verge of implementing significant reforms aimed at protecting the civil liberties of all Berkeley residents, including immigrants.
Full article here.
The vote will be held at the March 13 City Council meeting at Old Berkeley City Hall 2134 Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley. The meeting begins at 6pm. The item is expected to be heard between 7pm and 9pm.
Take action to tell the Berkeley City Council you support surveillance transparency.
A public records request by Oakland Privacy member Mike Katz Lacabe for pictures from the Urban Shield 2017 counterterrorism drill revealed Homeland Security Investigations/ICE participated in Urban Shield, despite there being no listing for HSI or ICE in the participant list.
East Bay Express coverage: Alameda County Sheriff Hosted ICE at Urban Shield
Telmundo coverage: Activista: Agentes De ICE Entrenados A La Bahia
“It’s easy to look at it this way: The Department of Homeland Security equals ICE equals training at Urban Shield equals terrorizing communities,” Alameda County spokesperson Sgt. Ray Kelly said. “It’s a lot more complicated than that”.
The Sacramento Police Department’s Vigilant license plate reader system shares geolocation license plate data and photographs of Sacramento residents cars with 792 agencies, including the Post Office, Yellowstone National Park, the Franchise Tax Board, fusion centers in Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana, Georgia Tech University, the University of Delaware, counties/cities across the United States as obscure as Zebulon, NC, Killeen, TX and Greece, NY, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Chicago “Strike Force” and at least three field offices of HSI/ICE.
On February 27, The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will discuss and vote on whether to accept the enclosed report and recommendations from the large task force they convened in January of 2017 to discuss the Homeland Security-funded anti terrorism training competition and exposition.
Location: Alameda County Administration Building 1221 Oak Street, 5th Floor Oakland. 10:45am. Agenda item 45.1
55 progressive groups, including OP, wrote to Congress asking the Dems to support the CRA revoking the net neutrality repeal. The letter states: “Internet freedom activists, grassroots organizers, social justice advocates, labor unions, and progressive organizations like ours oppose Pai’s assault on our ability to communicate and connect. The internet has been a transformative tool for free speech and for organizing in furtherance of civil rights and social and economic justice. A free and open internet enables political dissidents and marginalized communities to make their voices heard on their own terms — without being stifled or warped by corporate gatekeepers such as broadband internet service providers (ISPs)”