(Today’s action is adapted from our friends at La Resistencia: https://www.facebook.com/LaResistenciaNW/photos/a.672106136183603/2287420301318837/)
The UW Center for Human Rights just released a report describing how 34,400 people have been deported by ICE by way of King County International Airport/Boeing Field since 2010.
Boeing Field is owned by King County, which is a “sanctuary county” that has said it will not contribute resources to the enforcement of federal civil immigration enforcement.
In addition to this cooperation, the report notes that in many cases, people are being deported before their court cases have even been decided. And there has been documentation of horrendous treatment of those being flown out of the country. The report paints a picture of ICE as a lawless agency with no transparency, no oversight, that repeatedly violates the human rights and due process rights of deportees.
County Executive Dow Constantine issued an executive order to amend airport leasing practices with the goal of banning ICE deportation flights. This isn’t good enough: some of the airport contractors involved have leases to operate for 35 more years! King County needs to get FAR more creative and stop the use of its airport to facilitate ICE’s indiscriminate deportations.
Today’s Action: Tell King County’s Leaders to Stop ICE Deportation Flights
Today we are asking you to make two phone calls. One to your King County Council Member, and another to Dow Constantine.
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Find your King County Council Member here: https://www5.kingcounty.gov/kcgisreports/KCClookup.aspx
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Dow Constantine can be reached at 206-263-9600
Sample Script
Hi, my name is {NAME}, and I live in {CITY, ZIP}. I have heard about ICE’s deportation flights from Boeing Field, and I am asking {OFFICIAL} for three things. 1. I want an immediate end to all of the charter flight leases that allow this to continue. 2. I want King County to publicly share all of the information it has about these flights. 3. Don’t approve any new leases that would make this possible in the future. Our community cannot wait 35 years for these leases to actually become a sanctuary for our undocumented friends and family members.
Background
Bonus for Data Scientists
The UW CHR has published all of their data and accompanying code on GitHub: https://github.com/UWCHR/ice-air
