Break it Down!
Supporting immigrants in New York City to understand the connections between the legal and immigration systems, that target immigrant communities of color and cause mass incarceration and deportations.
Over the past several decades, many laws were passed to make the criminal legal and immigration systems more interconnected. As a result, the federal government, police, and prisons often share information about individuals and work together. This means that any contact with the police can severely impact an individual’s immigration status. And in a system where immigrants of color are already disproportionately impacted by racist policing, this leads to even harsher consequences like deportation and family separation.
To help immigrants understand the risks of police contact, the Immigrant Justice Network (IJN) collaborated with CUP and designer Emily Lin to create Break it Down! The bilingual English and Spanish fold-out poster explains the different ways that contact with the criminal legal system can impact your immigration status and how the systems became connected. With this information, immigrants can advocate for their rights when interacting with police and fight back against the unjust laws that impact them.
The Immigrant Justice Network launched Break it Down! at a training on decriminalization for community members in February 2022. The guide will be distributed to IJN’s network of local and regional immigrant rights organizations, criminal justice groups, and allied organizations.
Check out the Project
The cover and poster of Break it Down!
Project Collaborators
Community Partner
Immigrant Justice Network (IJN)
Jane Shim
Oliver Merino
Designer
Emily Lin
Special Thanks
Donald Anthonyson, Thorn Chann, Karim Golding, Theresa Kim, Kevin Lam, Soche Meng, María Nóbrega, Alejandra Pablos, Kab Pheng, Seap Phin, Arianna Salgado, Sarath Suong, Nate Tan, Robert Vivar
Product Details
8″ × 11″ color pamphlet; unfolds to 22″ × 32″ poster
Funding Support
Support for this project was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
General support for CUP’s programs is provided in part by The Kresge Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
