Coalition of Organizations Lead Online Rally for Pascal Shakoure Charpentier, a U.S. Citizen Who Had Been Held in ICE Detection Since July

    NEW YORK, NY, November 18, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A coalition of organizations have called for an on-line rally and press conference 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, November 18th to support the release of Pascal Shakoure Charpentier who was arrested on July 6th, 2020, and is still being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite being a U.S. citizen, born on a U.S. military base during the Vietnam War.

WHAT: On-Line Rally and Press Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, November 18, 12:30 p.m. EST
WHERE: LIVE ON FACEBOOK

WHO: New Sanctuary Coalition, MPower Change, BAJI-Black Alliance for Just Immigration, CAIR-Council on American-Islamic Relations, Freedom To Thrive, African Communities Together, and Family & Friends of Pascal Shakoure Charpentier, as well as Shakoure, himself.

From MPower Change, "Shakoure's case illustrates the compounding effects of anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and xenophobia in our carceral system."

More than 2,500 people have signed a petition urging the Governor's office to grant clemency which would erase the 30-year-old crime that triggered his arrest. Hundreds have called his office and have sent email messages to the Executive Clemency Board in support.

President Trump's 2017 Executive Order called Enhancing Public Safety expanded the priority list of people subject to deportation to include anyone who has "committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense." Trump's extremely broad Executive Order has meant that 74% of the people arrested by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations had criminal convictions, a vast expansion from previous years.

According to a study done by NYU Law's Immigrant Rights Clinic and BAJI Black Alliance for Just Immigration, "The government's increasing focus on immigrants with criminal records disproportionately impacts Black immigrants, who are more likely to be identified through interactions with local law enforcement, because of rampant racial profiling."

The words of Pascal Shakoure Charpentier:
"How quickly our systems can fail us. The law can undo so much that a family has built over decades, no matter how much a person can have accomplished, and crumble right before their eyes because there's a box that wasn't checked off somewhere in the paperwork or documents that's supposed to represent your citizenship."

"We want ICE to know that we are watching and we won't allow them to detain Shakoure, (or anyone) in dangerous, punitive conditions in the Bergen County Jail when COVID-19 runs rampant in jails, prisons, and detention facilities across the country," said attorney Julie Goldberg, representing Charpentier.

Shakoure should not be required to fight to reunite with his family from a cage. Please follow our FB Page, www.Facebook.com/FreePascalShakoureCharpentier for all updates.

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