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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2017)
October 18, 2017 The Skanner Page 9 ACLU Files ‘Freedom of Information Act’ Request with ICE News Stacey Adams Wants to be America’s First Black Female Governor Will Stacey Abrams Be America’s First Black Female Governor in U.S. History? By Melanie Sevcenko Of The Skanner News T Andrade-Tafolla and his wife as ICE agents attempt to detain them on Sept. 18, 2017 The attempted arrests were criticized by Wash- ington County Sheriff Pat Garret, as well as U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonami- ci and Earl Blumenauer, who asked that ICE apol- ogize to Andrade-Tafolla and for an explanation into its questionable practices. “Targeting U.S. citizens on the basis of race is a clear violation on their constitutional rights,” wrote the representa- tives in a letter to Eliz- abeth Godfrey, deputy fi eld director for the ICE Removal Operations in Portland. The ACLU of Oregon fi led the request to gath- er more information on how federal immigration agents are conducting operations in Oregon, exacerbated further, it says, by President Trump’s race-based at- tacks on immigrants and refugees in the U.S. “We submitted this FOIA request so that we can learn more about how ICE is using racial profi ling to make arrests in Oregon,” said Mat dos Santos, legal director at the ACLU of Oregon, in a statement. The request details how, soon aft er President Trump assumed offi ce, the group began receiv- ing lawyer-penned re- ports of ICE agents stop- ping their Latino clients around courthouses in Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington coun- ties. In the request, the civ- il liberties group also notes that California, New York, Connecticut, Colorado and Washing- ton have joined forces, formally requesting that the ICE not make arrests in or around their court- houses. By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor) he GOP has held a tight grip on the governor’s mansion in Geor- gia since 2002, when Sonny Per- due, promising to restore the Confederate battle cross to the state fl ag, defeated Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes to become the fi rst Repub- lican to hold the position in the Peach State since Reconstruction. But, a motivated Democrat is look- ing to change that and shatter a glass ceiling that has never been broken in the United States. Stacey Abrams, the Georgia state house minority leader, who holds degrees from Spelman College and the Yale School of Law, is seeking to become America’s fi rst Black female governor. “It’s a very humbling experience to know that, if I win this election, I would have achieved something that Black women, as far back as Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm, have fought for, not necessarily the same job, but transforming how we think about leadership in America,” Abrams said in an interview with the NNPA Newswire. “Physically claiming that mantle of leadership and holding it signals that anything is possible and we can redefi ne what leadership looks like and who we can lift up.” Abrams, 43, said she’s undaunted by the stranglehold the GOP has had on the governor’s mansion for the past 15 years. She said Georgia will likely be a majority-minority state in the com- ing years which provides Democrats more of an opportunity to claim the seat next year. Abrams noted that Democrats have gained steamed, citing the 2006 race where the party lost by nearly 400,000 WIKIMEDIA COMMONS T he ACLU of Oregon fi led a Freedom of Information Act request last week with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal law en- forcement agency that governs border control. The request comes on the heels of the ICE’s at- tempt to detain Isidro Andrade-Tafolla, 46, and his wife on Sept. 18. Dressed in plain- clothes, two ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle surrounded the Forest Grove couple as they left the Washington County courthouse in Hillsboro, Ore. Footage of the alterca- tion was captured by a volunteer legal observer using the ALCU’s Mobile Justice smartphone app. The video revealed that the federal immigration agents did not identify themselves – or present a warrant for arrest – yet demanded to see An- drade-Tafolla’s identity documents. As explained by An- drade-Tafolla’s wife in the video, the couple was shown a mugshot of a man, aft er which the agents told Andrade-Ta- folla that it was him in the photo. Andrade-Tafolla, who came from Mexico in 1981 at the age of 10, pro- tested the claim and said the only resemblance was skin color. He be- came an American citi- zen in 1996 and has been employee of the county’s Land Use and Transpor- tation Department for almost 20 years. The couple was left alone only aft er addition- al agents approached the scene and communicated that they had the wrong man. VIDEO STILL FROM LEGAL OBSERVER USING MOBILE JUSTICE APP The civil liberties group wants to know how the federal immigration enforcement agency is operating in Oregon communities Georgia state house minority leader Stacey Abrams is running to become America’s fi rst Black female governor. votes but signifi cantly closed the gap during the last election in 2014, com- ing within less than 200,000 votes of victory. Four Republicans—Lieutenant Gov- ernor Casey Cagle; Secretary of State Brian Kemp; State Senator Hunter Hill; and State Senator Michael Wil- liams and two Democrats—Abrams and State Representative Stacey Ev- ans—have declared their candidacy for the post. The New Georgia Project, a non-par- tisan voter registration group, that Abrams launched three years ago, may also help her candidacy. “It’s the single largest voter registra- tion eff ort in recent memory in Geor- gia and we have been able to register more than 200,000 people of color in Georgia to vote,” Abrams said. “I just don’t talk, I have a record that we need to talk about.” The Guardian reported that, Abrams is “One of six children born to Meth- See ADAMS on page 10 A career you can be proud of. Being a carpenter isn’t just a job. It’s a way of life. We’re devoted to strengthening the lives of our members with steady work, wealth and personal growth. We take a stand for our members and all workers. 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