Rights Working Group’s Communications Director, Priya Doshi, distributed a template letter for expressing disappointment and disgust to ABC affiliates who broadcast the show:

Dear ABC Affiliate,

I am writing to express my concern over ABC’s new “reality” show called “Homeland Security USA.” Please consider what the show does not cover. The show’s Executive Producer said the show was “not investigative journalism” but what he doesn’t say is that the show is pure propaganda to promote a better image for a government agency whose practices routinely violate the human rights of people in this country.

“Homeland Security USA” has not, and based on what I’ve seen, will not air scenes from immigration raids where (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) ICE agents descend with helicopters and guns drawn and throw unresisting people to the ground. The program won’t show how those detained don’t get a phone call to their families or access to a lawyer before they are thrown in detention. It won’t take viewers inside overcrowded detention centers used to lock up immigrant detainees where access to basic medical care is often denied even to those with chronic and serious conditions. This reality series won’t show viewers the asylum seekers, pregnant women, mentally and physically disabled people, and families with small children who are among the hundreds and thousands currently in ICE detention facilities. And ICE agents aren’t likely to deliver on air apologies when they arrest and detain legal immigrants and even citizens because they fit a certain ethnic or religious profile.

Please express my deep objections over the reality that is missing from this so-called “reality” program to the ABC network.

Regards,

Learn more about the group’s campaign to hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable by visiting the Rights Working Group website and signing a petition or helping educate others about the human rights violations of the DHS, which, according to RWG, include:

-Warrantless and aggressive raids on homes and workplaces, often without granting detainees the right to a phone call or counsel.
-Detainees being held in inhumane and overcrowded conditions, often without charges, and for months and even years.
-The backlogging of naturalizations due to FBI security name checks linked only to race, religion, or natural origin.

(image from Rights Working Group)

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