Help fund investigative journalism

A local undocumented immigrant is arrested in a Wal-Mart parking lot—for selling tamales. She's nearly deported back to Mexico, her two American kids stuck here in Sacramento while she's held in downtown's jail.

A man is arrested inside his Elmhurst home—for playing loud music in the garage. He’s undocumented, too, but his wife and two children are citizens. He’s nearly deported by Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies colluding with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he’s saved at the eleventh hour.

These sorts of incidents and near-deportations aren’t supposed to happen. What’s going on at Sacramento’s main jail? Are our deputies still working with ICE to illegally deport nonviolent and nondangerous immigrants? And what impact do these deportations have on families and communities?

Questions such as these, and more, are why SN&R recently launched the California Immigration Project at BeaconReader.com.

If you help fund this project in the coming weeks, Beacon will match your donation dollar-for-dollar.

And, if we reach our goal of $10,000 raised, you will see multiple cover and news features, plus collaborations with media outlets throughout the state, shining light on the issue of immigration, jails and deportations. We will also fund a short documentary on this issue with a local video journalist.

Earlier this month, SN&R staff writer Raheem F. Hosseini first started reporting on Sheriff Scott Jones’ puzzling relationship with ICE (see “Deportation games,” SN&R Feature Story, October 15, at: http://tinyurl.com/DeportationGames).

But there’s significant reporting still to be done. Help make it possible today by donating to the California Immigration Project. Thanks for your support!