Who We Are

The Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to educate the public and policy makers about the U.S. immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for humane reform so that all who come to our shores receive fair and humane treatment.

We believe that by working together we can effect greater change in the immigration detention system. Our members and supporters include organizations providing services to those in immigration detention and their families, and organizations and individuals advocating on behalf of those in immigration detention. We are lawyers, activists, social workers, national advocates, students, community organizers, faith communities, former detainees, and affected families from around the country.

Why Be Part of DWN?

• DWN is the only national coalition whose main focus is immigration detention and deportation issues.

• DWN focuses on its members: it is member led, member driven, and member inclusive.

• DWN creates a broad tent for advocates with wide geographic, issue, and political diversity to come together to build relationships and collaborate on issues of common concern. Working together, members are able to amplify their individual voices demanding change.

• DWN consistently creates useful and timely resources for members and the community, including the Real Deal Fact Sheet on Detention, the Detention Map, the DWN website, and Raids Response Toolkit.

• DWN members carry a wealth of knowledge about detention and deportation issues; individually and collectively they are a rich resource for the larger immigrant rights community. Members consistently and intentionally reach out to new communities to share their resources and expertise.

• With service providers swamped by day-to-day direct service work, families of detainees overwhelmed by the system, community organizations without the expertise, and national advocates with multiple priorities, DWN is able to step in and be a national voice and educator on detention and deportation on behalf of all those who care about the plight of detained immigrants.

• DWN membership is a unique opportunity to meet, learn from and collaborate with others who also care about the plight of immigrants in the U.S. detention and deportation system. DWN offers its members opportunities for networking, information sharing, media exposure, and coordinated education and advocacy.

• Some current projects include:

    Coordinated Advocacy via the Detention Roundtable and other forums as well as targeted campaigns to promote improved detention conditions and alternatives to detention.
    Regional Meetings/Deportation 101 Trainings to support and connect members, conduct outreach to new members and allies, and raise community awareness and involvement around detention/deportation issues.
    Raids Response: Connecting Raids to Detention through assisting communities’ capacity to respond to growing ICE enforcement by providing materials, training and technical support.
    Ongoing Resource Development for members and the larger community including public education materials, the detention map, the story project, and the DWN website.

• Through its coordinated advocacy, education, and resource development, DWN is able to provide key support to members on the issues of detention and deportation, without which, many organizations would not be able to do the work as effectively. Being a part of DWN is like having another staff person focused on these issues.

Core Values and Principles: What do We Believe?
The United States is a nation of immigrants and refugees, built on the strengths of diverse peoples, cultures, and beliefs, and sustained by the enduring values of fairness, equality, and individual rights. We seek to honor this history and these values.

  • We seek fair and humane immigration laws and procedures that reflect international norms of human rights.
  • We seek the consistent enforcement of these laws in ways that respect and value immigrants and immigrant communities.
  • We stand in solidarity with immigrants in detention and we fight for their fair, dignified, respectful treatment as individuals with unique histories and desires.
  • We seek to disentangle immigrants and refugees from the paradigm of national security and the framework of criminal justice.
  • We believe the US should seek alternatives to using detention so that immigrants are only held in detention facilities as a last resort and that prison facilities and jails should never be used for this purpose.
  • We are also concerned that the conditions of detention be humane and respectful not punitive. We believe that people in detention have a right to access to legal, social, health, spiritual, and other supportive services.

DWN members will be essential participants in legislative and administrative advocacy which seeks the following:

  • No mandatory detention of immigrants and an overall reduction in the use of detention (not the elimination of detention).
  • Any decision to detain would be made on a case-by-case basis by an independent judge.
  • Fair release policies would be maintained through parole and bond.
  • Any detention that does occur will be for the least amount of time and in the least restrictive setting possible.
  • Separate housing for immigrants being held in detention and the general prison population
  • Viable, federally funded, community-based release alternatives to detention
  • Detention standards (incorporated into regulations and enforced/applied universally) and other binding administrative requirements that mandate that people in detention have more humane conditions and treatment and meaningful access to legal, social, spiritual, health care and other vital services.
  • The independent, high-level oversight of detention conditions and standards by a civilian task force.
  • Continued expansion of federally funded legal assistance
  • Access to supportive programs and services


History

DWN was founded in 1997 by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in response to the rapid growth of the immigration detention system in the United States, as a result of the immigration laws passed by Congress in 1996. From its inception until 2003, DWN was coordinated nationally by LIRS with an advisory committee composed of more than 15 member agencies. In 2003-04, the network underwent an evaluation and planning process, and was re-launched in 2005 as a membership-based coalition.

The network now includes over 86 religious, civil, immigrant and human rights organizations as well as many individual members. Our members bring rich and diverse expertise to the table. They are lawyers, legal workers, doctors, psychologists, social workers, artists, clergy, students, families, and activists. They are engaged in individual case and impact litigation, documenting conditions violations, administrative and legislative advocacy, community organizing and mobilizing, communication and messaging, popular education, local and national advocacy, teaching, and social service and pastoral care. Together, our members have the on-the-ground expertise, inside knowledge, passion and credibility to bring to light the abuses of civil rights and civil liberties and the inhumane treatment and conditions within the US detention and deportation system and identify solutions and strategies for reform.

DWN is led by an elected steering committee of representatives from 12 member organizations who provide leadership on governance, planning and fund raising. The core of DWN's work is carried out by member committees including Network Building, Public Awareness, and Advocacy.

Detention Watch Network is a fiscally-sponsored project of Tides Center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and the nation's largest fiscal sponsor.