Numerous international human rights documents firmly establish the principle that no human being can be outside the protection of the law or “illegal.” Yet despite the clearly established principle that discrimination and abuse based upon immigration status is a violation of human rights, U.S. government policies continue to sanction human rights violations against immigrants.
Federal immigration enforcement policies such as Secure Communities and local laws like Arizona's S.B. 1070 tear immigrant families apart create rifts between communities and law enforcement. Immigrant workers are abused, exploited and become scapegoats for a host of societal ills in a nation with a suffering economy. And immigrants trapped in this country's maze of immigration and deportation proceedings are incarcerated in immigration detention, a system that has repeatedly failed to properly care for those in its custody.
Upholding the rights of immigrants is important to us all. When the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one vulnerable group, everyone's rights are at risk. Non-citizens are often the first and most vulnerable targets of government abuse.
ACLU Suggested List of Issues to U.N. Country Report Task Force on U.S. Compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (2012 resource): The ACLU submitted a report to the Human Rights Committee as part of a larger civil society effort to inform the international human rights community about the situation of human rights in the United States.
Immigrations Rights: No Human Being is Illegal: The Constitution guarantees the fundamental rights and civil liberties of every person in this country. Upholding the rights of the politically disenfranchised is vital; when the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one group of people, it puts all our rights in danger.