#maldef

Do not look away, do not be silent. If you or a loved one is detained by ICE, stay silent except to ask for your lawyer. Keep your documents on you. Call legal aid foundations who are standing by.

If you are NOT in LA and want to help, you can contact rapid response networks and ask how to help or donate. Donate to ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), or the Immigrant Defense Project.

Here are some slides with good tips to share and a list of SoCal rapid response networks:

DO NOT LOOK AWAY!

U.S. citizen seeks $1M after arrest for filming Home Depot ICE immigration raid https://share.google/1tI7oFWwVhucgYR6p

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is demanding the federal government pay $1 million in damages to a U.S. citizen who was arrested and detained while he was recording an immigration raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles last month.

MALDEF put the government on notice of a coming civil lawsuit for what it says were assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment against Job Garcia, 37.

Garcia, a Ph.D. student and photographer, was tackled and thrown to the ground by agents in the Home Depot parking lot in Hollywood, arrested and held for more than 24 hours, MALDEF said.

It said Wednesday that it submitted the claim against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol and other Department of Homeland Security agencies involved in Garcia's arrest.

MALDEF also said that Garcia's arrest and detention were racially motivated and that the government agents may have violated his constitutional protections for free speech, his right to remain silent, his freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and his right to due process.

MALDEF said the claim is a required administrative step before it files a lawsuit against the Border Patrol, ICE and the other DHS agencies.

"The Border Patrol and ICE agents unlawfully restrained and detained Mr. Garcia for more than 24 hours without any valid grounds for interfering with his liberty and freedom of movement and they did so based on legally prohibited grounds," MALDEF said in its claim letter, dated Tuesday. MALDEF said he was released without arraignment or notification of a future court date.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Garcia assaulted and verbally harassed a federal agent and that he was subdued and arrested for the alleged assault. She repeated Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's warning that anyone who lays a hand on a law enforcement officer will be fully prosecuted.

Ernest Herrera, MALDEF's Western regional counsel, said the claim sends a message to the federal government about punishing people for exercising their First Amendment rights "and for hurting bystanders and protesters, whether they be U.S. citizens or not during these raids that are happening in public places."

May 23, 1984 Edgewood ISD vs. Kirby Filed

While Texas does not have an income tax, it does have a property tax, which has long been used to fund local school districts. Over the years this has led to a major disparity between poor and wealthy districts, as districts with higher property values are able to build better schools, attract better teachers, and buy better supplies.

In 1984, one group of parents from Edgewood ISD in San Antonio had had enough. On May 23rd, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit against the Commissioner of Education, William Kirby, charging that the current funding system for Texas schools discriminated against students in poor districts - for example, Edgewood ISD had $38,854 property valuation per student while Alamo Heights ISD, also in San Antonio, had $570,109 per student - and violated the state constitutions, which obligated the state "to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools."

Edgewood ISD vs. Kirby would take five years to wind its way through the courts and would eventually include 75 school districts and numerous parents. In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously sided with Edgewood ISD and the other plaintiffs and ordered the Texas legislature to create a plan to address the inequity. The first two attempts were rejected, but the third plan is still currently in place. Created in 1993 and upheld in 1995, the plan allows for several options by wealthy districts to redistribute funding to poorer districts, including moving taxable property to the tax rolls of poorer districts, consolidating school districts, and moving students from poorer to wealthier districts.