One of the flyers that appeared in Southwest this morning. (Photo via Twitter)

One of the flyers that appeared in Southwest this morning. (Photo via Twitter)

Fake flyers claiming to be from Immigration and Customs Enforcement appeared overnight in different neighborhoods across the city, and the D.C. mayor wants people to tear them down.

The phony “Sanctuary City Neighborhood Public Notice” tells people that it is a crime to “conceal, harbor, or shield from detection” any “illegal alien,” and instructs them to call a number for a Customs and Border Protection hotline.

ICE says the posters are not theirs. ““The immigration enforcement notices appearing across Washington D.C., were not issued or sanctioned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” ICE spokesperson Carissa Cutrell said in a statement. “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.”

Richard Byrne, the local playwright and editor who tweeted about the posters he saw in his Southwest neighborhood, says he counted at least six of the flyers on his walk from 6th and G Street SW to the L’Enfant Metro Station. “I did see a couple more across the street too,” he says. “If I had walked around I probably would have found more.”

He says they must have been hung up overnight “because I was out and about yesterday in the same vicinity and they were not there.” Byrne has lived in the neighborhood for a little more than two years, and described seeing the flurry of flyers as “immensely sobering,” even if he could immediately tell they were not really from ICE.

“Southwest D.C. is not always the most placid neighborhood,” he says. “But this is just so far beyond the pale of what our neighborhood is about. Imagine putting the time in to put [the flyers] up on pretty much every pole in a couple block radius.”

He notes that the posters also have a D.C. government logo on the bottom, which he describes as “trolling of an exceptional degree.”

Already Mayor Muriel Bowser has responded to the posters with a tweet calling for people to tear down the flyers. “Clearly the flyer is meant to scare and divide our residents,” she said. “We won’t stand for it.”

She added that D.C. Police and Public Works will have them taken down.

Some of the flyers appeared in Ward 6. Councilmember Charles Allen’s office heard about them from a resident, according to Allen’s spokesperson Erik Salmi. He says the office supports Bowser’s “stance and approach” on the flyers and is looking into the matter. Allen’s ward also saw neighbors fight a misogynistic flyer with a response flyer in December.

On Friday, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton called on the FBI to investigate the flyers. “Whoever created and posted these fliers did so in violation of several federal laws,” she said in a statement. “We believe a federal investigation to determine who is responsible is fully warranted.”

Bowser has affirmed since President Donald Trump’s election that D.C. remains a sanctuary city. “We are a sanctuary city because we know that our neighborhoods are safer and stronger when no one is afraid to call on our government for help, and when our police can focus on protecting and serving,” she said.

The designation is largely symbolic, though D.C. prevents local law enforcement from asking about immigration status during routine stops and limits their cooperation with federal deportation orders. Her administration launched a $500,000 grant program for immigrant services, including legal representation during deportation hearings.

However, activists have continually called upon Bowser to issue an even stronger defense of undocumented residents and end data sharing with regional databases which ICE can access.

D.C. has about 70,000 immigrants, and roughly 25,000 are undocumented. Immigration arrests by ICE nationwide increased by 32.6 percent in the first few weeks of the Trump administration compared to the previous year.

At 11 a.m. today, leaders from immigrant advocacy groups CASA and The DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network held a demonstration in front of the White House with members of the clergy to call for an end to deportations of otherwise law-abiding immigrants.

“We continue to fight for the people caught up in this unjust and cruel set of immigration policies that make absolutely no sense and are needlessly tearing families apart,” said CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres in a release.

Updated to include that flyers have been found in a number of D.C. neighborhoods, and with a statement from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Filed Under: charles allen, deportation, mayor bowser, sanctuary city, ward 6,