DHS Violence Endangers the Autistic Community

Formal Language

This statement focuses on the ways that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) violence threatens the autistic and disabled communities. We encourage readers to learn more about how ICE and CBP are harming members of many marginalized communities wherever they go. Please also read these statements from the *ACLU** and National Immigration Law Center for more information.*

ASAN is horrified by the widespread reports of violence and aggression by ICE and CBP, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. Autistic and disabled immigrants are especially vulnerable to this campaign of violence. ASAN demands that Congress take action now to stop these agencies from claiming any more lives.

These violent incidents are the clear result of a pattern of aggressive and escalatory conduct by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies. Over the past several months, federal agents have increasingly employed heavy-handed and violent responses such as smashing windows, racial profiling, suspicionless arrests, and use of excessive and unwarranted force such as firing riot munitions at individuals’ heads. These actions do not protect our communities but endanger them, and demonstrate that even before the most recent killings, DHS’s mission has been marked by an alarming disregard for the lives and safety of everyone they have encountered.

The disabled community is among those put most at risk by these actions. Over the past several months, we have seen autistic individuals like Aliya Rahman dragged out of their cars and assaulted on their way to medical appointments. We have seen autistic children held without cause, allegedly held as “ruses” to lure their parents into arrest. We have seen reports that Deaf and other disabled individuals are denied access to the necessary communication tools to assert their rights. We have seen reports that disabled detainees are routinely denied essential medical care and medication in violation of their human rights. We have seen disabled detainees die in DHS’s appalling detention centers, including Nhon Ngoc Nguyen (who had dementia and a TBI), Johnny Noviello (who had epilepsy), and Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani (who was chronically ill.) We have seen children assaulted by riot munitions at schools, and families snatched out of bus stops on their way to and from schools. We have seen the ways these threats have cut our community off from vital services and supports, and robbed people with disabilities of the supports they need to live. And we have seen people killed in the streets by DHS agents, shot dead for daring to document all of these other assaults on our rights and our persons by agencies that then used those killings to threaten others exercising their rights. Enough is enough.

ASAN has been clear in the past that the best way to protect the safety of autistic individuals from police violence is to reduce unnecessary police encounters. For this reason alone, the sweeping, aggressive, suspicionless action of DHS puts our communities at great risk. ASAN has also been clear in the past that training alone is insufficient to protect our community. We need swift and concrete accountability for misconduct, and we must end policies and practices that endanger us. For these reasons, the actions of DHS and other federal agencies have been even more outrageous and even more likely to result in death. Between reported efforts to prevent an independent investigation of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, to reporting of an ICE memo authorizing agents to break into people’s homes without warrants, it is clear that the threats these agencies pose to our communities cannot be solved with training, or even with accountability for individual officer misconduct alone. Where these actions reflect directives from agency leadership and efforts by that leadership to evade responsibility, they create an agency-wide threat to our community. Congress must use all tools at their disposal to get ICE out of our cities before more people with disabilities are abused and more lives are lost. They must act to stop ICE and CBP from shielding officers who threaten and kill us, terrorizing us out of participating in our communities, and making it harder for all of us to work, play, go to school or see our doctors.

Plain Language

Government agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have hurt many people in the last few months. They have killed people too. Government agents from ICE or CBP killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. When ICE and CBP hurt so many people, this puts our autistic and disabled communities in danger. Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from killing more people.

In this statement, we talk about ways that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is hurting the autistic and disabled communities. Please also take time to learn about how DHS is putting many communities in danger. You can start by reading these statements from the ACLU and National Immigration Law Center.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are two parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE and CBP try to stop immigrants from coming into the United States without permission from the government. Since last year, the government has used these agencies to hurt and scare communities all over the United States.

Over the last few months, government agents have done violent and unfair things like:

Smashing people’s windows.Arresting people based on what race agents think they look like.Arresting people for no reason.Using guns to fire heavy things at people’s heads.

When government agents do things like this, it does not protect our communities. It puts us all in danger. Even before the killings this month, DHS has acted like it doesn’t care about our lives or safety.

People with disabilities are not safe when these things are happening around us. Here are some things the news has said that ICE and CPB have done to disabled people in the last few months:

• Aliya Rahman is autistic and has a brain injury. When she was driving to the doctor, ICE agents dragged her out of her car and arrested her. They didn’t let her get medical care that she needed, and she fainted in the detention center. - ICE agents took an autistic 5-year old away from her family. The family says ICE did this so they could arrest her father. - Sometimes ICE arrests Deaf peopleor people with other disabilities who need help to communicate. ICE often doesn’t let people communicate in the way they need to. For example, they don’t get sign language interpreters for Deaf people. - Sometimes ICE puts disabled people in detention centers. They often don’t let disabled people get medical care they need while they are in detention centers.Disabled people have died in ICE detention centers, including Nhon Ngoc Nguyen (who had dementia and a TBI), Johnny Noviello (who had epilepsy), and Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani (who was chronically ill.) - ICE used tear gas at a high school, hurting students including disabled students. - ICE is arresting families while they are trying to take their kids to school. - Because of how dangerous ICE and CBP are, many disabled kids cannot go out to get services they need. - ICE arrested Maher Tarabishi, a man who spent all his time supporting his disabled son, Wael. Without support from his father, Wael Tarabishi died.He was only 30.

When people try to take videos of what ICE and CBP are doing, ICE and CBP agents threaten or kill them. When people try to stop ICE and CBP from hurting people, ICE and CBP agents threaten or kill them. For example, ICE agents killed a woman named Renee Good. Then, other ICE agents threatened protesters by saying they would kill the protestors like Renee Good was killed. We have the right to protest. No one should be killed in the street. Enough is enough.

ASAN has said before that the best way to protect autistic people from police violence is to prevent us from being around police when we don’t need to. Police sometimes target autistic people with violence, especially autistic people of color. Whenever there is more law enforcement moving around our communities, autistic people are at greater risk. That risk gets higher when the government agents are doing things like hurting people or arresting them for no reason. This is what DHS is doing now.

We have also said before that giving law enforcement more training about autism is not enough to keep us safe. We need our society to stop police and other law enforcement from hurting us or putting us in danger. When government agents do hurt us, they need to face consequences. For example, they should not be allowed to be government agents anymore.

Now, DHS is trying to stop other parts of the government from investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They are telling ICE agents they can break into people’s homes without permission from a judge. It’s obvious that training these agencies about disabilities will not be enough to stop them from hurting people. Punishing specific government agents who do bad things will not be enough either. The people in charge of DHS are telling the agents to act in unfair and dangerous ways. That means that all of DHS is putting our communities in danger.

Congress must do everything it can to stop this. We need to get ICE and CBP out of our cities before they hurt more disabled people. We need to get ICE and CBP out of our cities before they kill more people.

Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from protecting their agents who threaten and kill people. Congress needs to stop ICE and CBP from terrorizing communities so that people cannot:

• Go to work.
• Go to school.
• Play.
• See our doctors.
• Walk around safely.

This has to end.