The Arlington Coalition Against Secure Communities is among this year’s winners of the James B. Hunter Human Rights Award, presented annually by the Arlington Human Rights Commission.
The coalition was organized this summer to express the county’s concerns with the Secure Communities, a program administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at identifying criminals who are also in the country illegally.
The coalition has argued the program unfairly targets immigrant residents and can lead to distrust between the community and local law enforcement.
It successfully lobbied the Arlington County Board to unanimously adopt a resolution from Board Member Walter Tejada asking Arlington to withdraw from the ICE program. However, Arlington has since been told by ICE officials that it can’t withdraw from the program without losing access to valuable information concerning criminals caught by county law enforcement.
The coalition consist of several organizations, including Tenants and Workers United, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, and the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations.
