Washington, DC — Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement in response to a sweeping plan by the administration to indefinitely detain children and families:
“Trump will stop at nothing to perpetuate immigrant suffering. By dismantling the Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits child detention and provides critical safeguards, the administration will indefinitely incarcerate kids and families alike. Incarceration exacerbates the trauma many are fleeing, while subjecting people to egregious conditions and at times fatal medical care.
In addition to expanding prolonged detention of children, this policy change would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to circumvent contracting protocols and dismiss State licensing of childcare facilities. The Trump administration and ICE are caging immigrants at unprecedented levels (currently 55,000) and doing everything possible to make it easier to do so with little care for those in custody.
We must call on Congress to take action and release people from detention and defund Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE. These agencies have proven time and time again that they are fraught with abuse, negligence and mismanagement. There must be significant cuts in funding to these agencies as a way to fight Trump’s mass anti-immigrant, white nationalist agenda.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to expose and challenge the injustices of the United States’ immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes the rights and dignity of all persons. Founded in 1997 by immigrant rights groups, DWN brings together advocates to unify strategy and build partnerships on a local and national level to end immigration detention. Visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org. Follow @DetentionWatch.