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These ICE posters going around DC are very, very fake

It’s not clear who did this.

People stream onto Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, to attend the “Rally for Citizenship”, where tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters are expected to rally for immigration reform. CREDIT: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
People stream onto Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, to attend the “Rally for Citizenship”, where tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters are expected to rally for immigration reform. CREDIT: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The D.C. Police Department is investigating after fake posters labeled “Sanctuary City Neighborhood Public Notice” with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency logo were found around the Washington, D.C. area on Thursday.

The flyer, which has the ICE logo in bold letters on a blue backdrop, calls on D.C. residents to report immigrants in the country illegally to the ICE agency. That agency is in charge of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country.

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The flyer includes a reference to “sanctuary city,” or a non-legal term referring to local jurisdictions that can choose not to turn over suspected undocumented immigrants to federal immigration authorities based on the severity of the crime.

The flyer also cites a federal statute which lists the “offenses related to the harboring, encouraging/inducing, and conspiracy/aiding or abetting of illegal aliens” to support its message of fear. Throughout, the flyer threatens people with imprisonment if they do not turn over immigrants to federal authorities.

What’s a bit peculiar about the flyer is that it includes some incongruous information. Instead of using ICE’s motto, “Protecting National Security and Upholding Public Safety,” the flyer has in large font, “If you see something, say something,” a U.S. Department of Homeland Security slogan. At the bottom of the poster, the flyer directs people to “report illegal aliens” to two separate phone numbers. One phone number is for ICE. The other phone number directs people to the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP), an agency that mostly focuses on immigration enforcement around the northern and southern U.S. borders.

The ICE agency tweeted Thursday that the poster was fake.

“The immigration enforcement notices appearing across Washington, D.C., were not issued or sanctioned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” Carissa Cutrell, an ICE spokeswoman, told ThinkProgress. “Just like false reports of immigration checkpoints or random sweeps, notices like these are dangerous and irresponsible. Any person who actively incites panic or fear of law enforcement is doing a disservice to the community, endangering public safety and the very people they claim to support and represent.”

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However, Cutrell also pointed out that anonymous tips provided to the ICE tip line are forwarded to field offices for follow up.

In a series of tweets, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser denounced the intent of the fake poster. “The flyer is meant to scare and divide our residents,” she said.

The D.C. police department emphasized Thursday afternoon that it has a “longstanding policy” that “prohibits officers from asking re citizenship/residency status to determine documentation.”

It’s as yet unclear who had that kind of time to put up flyers around the city. But the posters have done little to discourage advocates from standing up on behalf of immigrants. Local advocate Lizet Ocampo, the Political Director at the People for the American Way (PFAW), said she would form a group Thursday night to help tear down these posters around D.C.

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“I think [the posters] are just a form of intimidation and harassment of the immigrant community and it’s something that is very hurtful to see and very frustrating to see,” Ocampo told ThinkProgress. “Seeing something like that, you want to do something about it. It’s in our neighborhood.”

“It’s something we can do to stand against this intimidation against immigrant communities and also a way to stand up against hate,” Ocampo added. “It’s clearly targeted towards Latino and other immigrant communities. We need to, when we can organize, and show that there are people who support those.”

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders that make life difficult for immigrants. He’s tightened immigration controls and placed fewer restrictions on law enforcement officials to detain and arrest immigrants. And Trump’s shameful rhetoric — which seeks to paint immigrants, Muslims, other people of color as criminals — has led to emboldened attacks on those communities.

Last week, similar flyers cropped up in Chicago, encouraging African Americans to report undocumented immigrants. In Florida, a police asked an injured Latino bicyclist for his immigration status prior to offering help. In Minnesota, a Metro transit cop, who isn’t authorized to ask about legal status, asked a rider for his immigration status. And a Texas Republican lawmaker told a group of Democratic legislators that he had called ICE on immigrant advocates and supporters.

The flyers come at a time when a series of hate-related incidents have hit the D.C. metro area. A noose was found at the National African American History Museum on Wednesday, four days after another noose was found near the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum. In late May, a white University of Maryland student affiliated with a “Alt-Reich” Facebook group fatally stabbed a black student — a commissioned US Army second lieutenant — just a week before he was set to graduate from Bowie State University in Maryland. And just weeks earlier, another noose was found at an University of Maryland dorm. At the same time, bananas tied to nooses were found on the American University campus.