Call Your City-County Councilor: Tell the Sheriff No ICE Detention in Marion County Jail

Marion County voters: tell your City County Councilor to hold Sheriff Kerry Forrestal accountable for taking money from ICE to detain immigrants in the Marion County Jail!

We are promoting this action to support the budget pressure that Live Free Indiana is creating on the city and county to spend money on our community.

Please make a call to your City-County Councilor this week, if possible. All calls need to be made by September 3.

If you would like to make your calls in community with other folks, and get a bit more background info about this issue, we are hosting several Zoom sessions in which you can sign up to do it: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecentralindiana/event/831160/

Or, if you prefer to make your call to your councilor independently, you can do that too!

Step 1: Find Your City-County Councilor

Visit this link and enter your information to get the name and contact information for your City-County Councilor.

Step 2: Call Your City-County Councilor

📞 Phone Script – Urging End to Sheriff’s ICE Contract

(Use this script whether you speak with a person or when you leave a voice mail message)

Introduction

Hello, my name is [Your Name], and I’m a resident of [Your Neighborhood or District]. I’m calling to urge you to take action regarding the Sheriff’s contract with ICE.

Message

The jail is already facing a financial crisis, and using a contract with ICE to bring in new revenue is unacceptable—especially when that revenue comes at the cost of separating families and harming our community.

Key Points to Emphasize

• Families belong together! Detaining people for ICE leads to family separations and erodes trust between immigrant communities and local government.

• Using taxpayer dollars to break apart families is not an ethical or justifiable budget solution.

• We should be investing in community safety and services, not profiting from detention and deportation.

• There are better ways to address the jail’s financial challenges that don’t involve complicity with ICE.

Ask

I’m asking you to publicly call on the Sheriff to end the ICE contract immediately and to work toward policies that protect all Indianapolis families. Will you commit to doing that?

Follow Up

Once your call has been made, please follow this link and take two minutes to enter in the results of your call, whether you made contact with your councilor or left a message. We would like to track these calls as best we can so we can measure this campaign's effectiveness and can accurately report back to Live Free Indiana.

Step 3: Recruit Five Other People to Call their City-County Councilor

Who else do you know who shares your opposition to the Sheriff’s complicity with ICE? Call/contact five of your friends, neighbors, family, people from your church who will want to speak out and stop detention in the Marion County Jail. Help them to do what you just did, call their Councilor and communicate that opposition with that Councilor.

The Sheriff’s budget hearing with the City-County Council is September 3, so please make your call NOW!