S1E2.5: How Mayor Bowser Can Make DC a Sanctuary City

Follow Square 1 on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Twitter!

Paola Perez and Yasemin Zahara from Many Languages, One Voice

As promised in the Ep. 2 wrap-up, we’ve put together a bonus episode featuring part two of our interview with Yasemin and Paola from MLOV.

This part of our discussion features MLOV’s six demands of the Mayor and Council for keeping all District residents safe:

• Decline all warrantless detainer and notification requests issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and close all loopholes to ensure that city resources are not being used to advance any deportations and no information of the District’s residents is being shared with ICE;
• Commit to using local District funds to make up for any federal money withdrawn from the city, following the recommendations made by the Fair Budget Coalition;
• Immediately pass and fully fund the Language Access for Education Amendment Act of 2015 so that all limited and non-English proficient District residents can access District resources, such as medical, housing, worker protections, and education services, in their language;
• Have one standard DC identification card and driver’s license for all;
  Put an end to unchecked violence committed by the Metropolitan Police Department, Metro Transit Police Department, and special police forces against Black and Brown D.C. residents. Black and Brown immigrants in the District are targeted both by ICE and by our own police forces;
• Refuse the use of DC government information to build a Muslim registry or specialized surveillance of DC’s Muslim communities;
• Follow the leadership and guidance of community-led and community-comprised organizations such as Many Languages One Voice (MLOV) that will be affected by the new administration’s policies and priorities when determining what solutions to propose.

To learn more about how you can support MLOV and the sanctuary city movement, visit www.mlovdc.org.