Email ICE: #FreeShakoure

UPDATE 2/4/21:

All through December, thousands of people joined 80+ organizations in demanding Gov. Cuomo pardon Shakoure Carpentier. Despite the horrific conditions in NY prisons and jails due to COVID-19 and more, Cuomo only issued 21 pardons and clemencies. Shakoure was not on that list.

In the meantime, Shakoure has been detained in Bergen County Jail while his family navigates the complicated life during COVID-10 without him. He is high risk for contracting the virus as the conditions at Bergen County Jail continue deterioriating.

That's why we're now demanding ICE #FreeShakoure immediately.

Biden's "moratorium" hasn't protected Black people from immediate and hastened deportation [1]. Hundreds of our Black community members are being deported to Haiti, Cameroon, and other Black-majority and African countries. Shakoure is facing this direct threat: the risk of being deported to a country he's never lived in.

ICE's detention-deportation machine's reasons for detaining and deporting Shakoure are rooted in anti-Black Islamophobia and not much else. It's crucial we take action now.

With one click, send emails to a number of ICE officials who have the power to release Shakoure TODAY: Joanna Delgado (Acting AFOD), Waverly Boyd (Supervising Deportation Officer at Bergen County), and Kristopher Dawson (ICE agent).

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Read Shakoure's full story below:

On July 6th, 2020, ICE officers showed up at Pascal Shakoure Charpentier’s door and arrested him. Despite being a U.S. citizen born on a U.S. Army base, he's been imprisoned by ICE because of a former conviction.

Shakoure is a Black Muslim youth mentor, business owner, friend, son, and brother from Queens. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently willfully withholding vital documents about Shakoure's U.S. citizenship from the court that could set him free.

Shakoure was detained as a result of Trump's "Enhancing Public Safety" Executive Order, which expands the priority list of people subject to deportation to include anyone who has ever “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.” [2]

Shakoure's case illustrates the compounding effects of anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and xenophobia in our carceral system. The felony that triggered Shakoure’s arrest is more than 30 years old and he has already served 24.5 years of prison time for it. DHS's withholding of documents that could prove Shakoure's citizenship highlight yet again that ICE's motivations aren't rooted in much more than anti-Black Islamophobia.

No one should have to go through this fight. Especially not from a jail cell while COVID-19 continues ravaging jails and prisons across the country—including inside N.J. County jails, which had the first reported case of COVID-19 in the country. [3]

These conditions pose a catastrophic public health risk that continue to violate Shakoure's and all imprisoned people's human rights.

On November 5th, Judge Charles Conroy insisted that DHS produce vital immigration documents. As of November 19th, most of the documents have still not been turned over to Shakoure’s attorney. If Shakoure is judged to not have U. S. citizenship at his next court hearing in early December, he might be deported to a country where he has never lived and has no present family ties.

Let’s show up for him as hard as he has shown up for his community and make our voices heard: Shakoure’s community wants him home.

Join MPower Change, the New Sanctuary Coalition, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Freedom to Thrive, CAIR NY, and African Communities Together (ACT)—Email ICE and demand they #FreeShakoure NOW.

Sources:

1. Hunders Deported Under Biden, Including Witness to Massacre, AP News, 1 Feb 2021

2. Trump’s Immigration Executive Order Is A Blueprint For Mass Deportation, HuffPost, 27 Jan 2017
3. 'A Ticking Time Bomb': Advocates Warn COVID-19 Is Spreading Rapidly Behind Bars, NPR, 28 April, 2020

Art credit: @tommyevich

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Email ICE and Demand: #FreeShakoure

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Dear [recipient position will go here]  [recipient name will go here],

My name is [submission:values:first_name:nolabel] and I'm emailing to ask you to release Pascal Shakoure Charpentier, a Black Muslim youth mentor and business owner from Queens.

Mr. Charpentier is currently being imprisoned in ICE detention even though he's a U.S. citizen because of a legal technicality. The Department of Homeland Security is withholding vital documents about Mr. Charpentier's U.S. citizenship from the courts. If the judge is not convinced of his citizenship at Mr. Charpentier's hearing, he might be deported to a country he has never lived in and where he has no family ties.

Mr. Charpentier already served 24.5 years of prison time for the 30 year old felony that triggered his arrest—for actions he took as a teenager. He was released early due to his excellent record while in prison.

After his release, he emerged with two Bachelor of Science degrees and a Master’s from the New York Theological Seminary. Since that time he has been building a production company and forming and running From Bars II Beyond, a non-profit for at-risk youth media training with a focus on preventing their own incarceration. Mr. Charpentier has been helping our community in crucial ways. Labeling him as a thread to public safety is unjust and heartbreaking for his the community that loves him and wants him back.

Moreover, keeping anyone incarcerated when there is an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 in ICE detention centers across the United States is immoral. Conditions at the Bergen County Jail, where Mr. Charpentier is incarcerated, are inhumane and torturous: over the Summer there was repeatedly failing air conditioning. Bergen County Jail also has a long history of negligent treatment of people in ICE custody: two summers ago the jail had the same problem of no air conditioning, and at one point during the COVID-19 outbreak, people at the Bergen County Jail were served food with a dead rat carcass. Currently, people incarcerated at the Bergen County Jail are not being provided enough soap, hand sanitizer, or other basic necessities to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Mr. Charpentier is NOT a danger to the community. He's our son and brother, a man engaged to a heroic COVID-19 nurse, a mentor to at-risk youth, and a builder of businesses who has lived in the U.S. his entire life.

Free Shakoure Now.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here]

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