About DCC
Co-founded in 2018, The Decriminalizing Communities Coalition (DCC) brings together over 30 community partners to fight the shared violence of the criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems. Together, we seek to transform systems of criminalization into systems that truly promote public safety.
Our Vision
Instead of a pathway to a better life, the criminalization of our immigration system has created an environment of fear and dehumanization. Instead of a pathway to responsibility and transformation, the criminalization of our justice system has eroded the ability of our “public safety” systems to keep anyone safe.
We recognize these systems as two weapons in the same dangerous arsenal of criminalization. Both subvert humanity and replace it with otherness—the immigrant becomes the illegal alien, and the incarcerated becomes the felon. Both tear families apart and make communities less safe, whether by immigration detention or by confinement in jails and prisons. Both violate, objectify, and criminalize the bodies and lives of our poor, Black, Brown, and Indigenous siblings.
We intend to dismantle these systems as they operate now by standing for humanity and community. It is time to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the national level and for our state and county governments to stop participating in immigration enforcement. It is time for the criminal justice system nationally and locally to be completely re-imagined. It is time for the massive amount of public resources and dollars that currently go toward repressing our communities to go toward supporting them instead.
OUR WORK
To make our vision of community a reality, DCC focuses on county-level change, with a secondary focus on state legislation. We organize our members to push elected county officials like the sheriff and board of commissioners to use their power more effectively. Our current priorities include:
Eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence in the Twin Cities, by severing County Sheriff’s relationship with ICE, and institutionalizing non-cooperation with ICE through a Separation Ordinance.
Reforming Minnesota’s Post-Conviction Relief (PCR) statute that would allow individuals with old, legally defective convictions, to get relief from all ongoing consequences, including immigration consequences.
Join Us
Want to learn more about our campaign and how you can build community and combat criminalization?
Get in touch with JCA organizer,
Amy Alvarez Cruz.
Our Partners
