House Vote Tomorrow on Marijuana Justice

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to take a key vote on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment & Expungement (MORE) Act. The MORE Act would finally decriminalize marijuana federally and implement comprehensive reforms to repair the damage that marijuana criminalization has inflicted on our communities. IDP has fought for years to protect immigrant communities from the racist War on Drugs and proudly stands with the Marijuana Justice Coalition in support of the bill. Click here to ask your representative to vote #YESonMORE.

170 Orgs Tell Mayorkas to Stop Collusion
This week, IDP and United We Dream organized a letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas calling on him to reverse course on attempts to undermine local policies that protect immigrant communities. The letter, signed by 170 organizations across the country, comes on the heels of a speech that Mayorkas made to the U.S. Conference of Mayors where he urged greater cooperation with ICE.

Standing Up For Bail Reform

In response to Governor Hochul’s proposal to rollback critical bail reforms that were won in 2019, IDP spearheaded a letter this week opposing the plan. Thirty immigrants rights organizations joined IDP in the letter which details how bail reforms have protected immigrant New Yorkers, keeping families together as they navigate the criminal legal system and the risks of detention and deportation.

Fighting Increased Surveillance

This past month, we fought increased surveillance at the local level, including testifying at the NY City Council on the harms of Mayor Adams’s Blueprint to End Gun Violence and protecting the IDNYC from digitization. IDP’s Senior Researcher Alli Finn will be participating in Keep IDNYC Safe: Dangers of the Proposed IDNYC Expansion, an April 4th panel with New Economy Project, Make the Road New York, and STOP. In late February, IDP and the Center for Constitutional Rights also submitted a statement in response to the UN call for stakeholder input on, “New and emerging digital technologies and human rights.”

Defending One Day to Protect New Yorkers

In 2019, IDP spearheaded a campaign to pass One Day to Protect New Yorkers- a sentencing reform law that has protected countless New Yorkers from devastating immigration consequences. Now, immigration authorities are seeking to undermine that hard-fought win, trying to exile a New Yorker by refusing to honor the One Day law. This month, IDP and the Cardozo Law Immigration Justice Clinic filed two amicus briefs (IDP brief, Cardozo brief) at the Second Circuit in support of Mr. Peguero Vasquez, who is represented by Prisoner Legal Services and the Harvard Crimmigration Clinic. To learn more about our litigation campaign to defend state criminal justice reforms, please click here.