January 21, 2016

President Barack Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
20500
Dear President Obama,
We, the undersigned organizations, respectfully request that you, DHS, ICE, DOJ, and FBI
leadership come clean about PEP-COMM and promptly comply with the FOIA request
dated March 5, 2015. Its time to uncover the truth about the full scope of the Priority
Enforcement Program (PEP) and the level of ICE entanglement in localities across the US.
Early last year, immigrant and civil rights organizations filed a comprehensive request under
the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demanding basic information about the
new iteration of the Secure Communities deportation dragnet (S-COMM). Federal agencies
under your watch have refused to disclose the requested records. Instead, DHS and ICE
leadership have gone on a national crusade to quash the revolt against S-COMM policies,
obfuscating the facts with Trump logic and pressuring localities to accept the new jail
deportation program.
In the midst of the Trump effect, coalescing white supremacists groups and unbridled police
brutality, now is not the time to expand or double-down on failed jail deportation programs
or give local law enforcement more excuses to detain workers and people of color. Now is
the time to dismantle outdated detention and deportation regimes. And the first step is for
you and these federal agencies to accept the requirements for transparency under federal law.
Sincerely,

Alameda County United in Defense of

Immigrant Rights (ACUDIR)
Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice
(ACIJ)
Alabama Adelante Workers Center
California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance
(CIYJA)

Centro Laboral de Graton, CA

Centro Presente, MA
Chelsea Collaborative, MA
Compaeros Inmigrantes de las Montaas
en Accion (formely COLA)
California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC)
Cleveland Jobs with Justice, OH

Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

Central Ohio Workers Center

Dolores Street Community Services, CA

El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derecho, NM

National Immigration Law Center (NILC)

El Centro Hispano, NC

National Queer Asian Pacific

Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)

Families for Freedom

Fe y Justicia Workers Center, TX
GA Not1More Coalition
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights
(GLAHR)
IL Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights (ICIRR)
Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
Immigrant Youth Coalition, CA (IYC)
Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition
Interfaith Movement for Human
Integrity

OneAmerica
Pueblo Sin Fronteras, TX
Racial Justice Action Center
RAIZ, CA
Silicon Valley De-Bug
School of Americas Watch (SOAW)
CASA
Southeast Asian Coalition (SEAC)
Southeast Immigrant Refugee Network (SEIRN)
Southerners On New Ground (SONG)

Jobs With Justice, National

Texas Organizing Project (TOP)

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

of San Francisco

Trabajadores Unidos of DC (TUWDC)

Mujeres Unidas y Activas, CA

Muslim American Women's Policy Forum
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
(NDLON)
National Immigration Project, National
Lawyers Guild (NIP-NLG)

Unidad Latina en Accion, CT

Unidad Latina en Accion, NJ
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action Network
(UUMassAction)
Voces de la Frontera, WI
Washington Peace Center, DC

National Domestic Workers Alliance

(NDWA)

We Belong Together: Women for Common

Sense Immigration Policies

New Sanctuary Movement

of Philadelphia

We Count! FL
Wind of the Spirit: Immigrant Resource
Center, NJ