ACLU starts “immigrants’ voices” campaign amid Trump deportation threats

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a new multimedia campaign in southern border states highlighting the stories of asylum seekers who have fled Mexico, El Salvador and Cameroon.

Immigrant rights and civil liberties groups are preparing a public relations and court challenge blitz ahead of President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plan in hopes of slowing down immigrant removals.

The ACLU — the nation’s largest civil liberties organization — has the reach to mobilize activists, with chapters in many states and the ability to rally less-funded grassroots groups.

Protests could put pressure on Democratic-controlled states and cities to refuse to assist the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.

The ACLU’s Border Humanity Project unveiled Tuesday its “Letters to America” campaign that uses the voices and images of immigrants who have escaped violence in their former countries.

A video shows an immigrant mother telling her story by reading a letter to the U.S. public, ending with pleas not to force her and her daughter to return to a violent village overrun by gangs.

The video spots will run on digital sites in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Jonathan Blazer, director of border strategies at the ACLU, tells the campaign seeks to humanize immigrants beyond the caricatures and stereotypes politicians use.

“There’ve been falsehoods and lies that are most easily dispelled when you actually meet and hear directly from people about their stories and why they come,” he said.
Blazer says the immigrants tell Americans they were not coming to cause harm but to contribute and give back.

The Mexican plan against Trump: A mobile app, more shelters at the border, and greater containment of migrants.