Washington, DC – Today, a delegation of immigrant justice advocates and people who have experienced immigration detention representing Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia and Pennsylvania will meet with their elected officials and key members of Congress to discuss the alarming abuses in immigration detention, negative impact of the detention and immigration enforcement system on local communities, and make the following demands:
- The Biden administration should immediately cease any plans to open new detention centers or to expand existing detention facilities,
- Close immigration detention centers plagued with rampant abuse, including (but not limited to) the detention centers represented by our delegation: Winn Correctional Center, Torrance County Detention Facility, Adelanto Detention Facility, the Abyon Farmville Detention Center, Moshannon Valley Detention Center and Eloy Detention Center; and
- Release people from detention and allow them to navigate their immigration cases in the community.
The delegation includes immigrant justice advocates and directly impacted individuals from the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice in California, Trans Queer Pueblo in Arizona, Free Them All VA Coalition in Virginia, Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition in Pennsylvania, and the Dignity not Detention Coalition in Louisiana. Sponsored by Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Legal Aid Justice Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, and the National Immigration Project, today’s meetings with elected officials come at a critical time. Anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by fear-mongering, a scarcity mindset, and racist rhetoric has reached a dangerous fever pitch in today’s political discourse. Concurrently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently eyeing expansion of the detention system.
ICE has issued two Requests for Information (RFIs) in the last several months for new detention facilities in multiple states across the country, in addition to a Request for Proposal for a new facility in New Jersey. Immigrant justice advocates say ICE must stop pursuing these plans and must not issue any new RFIs. Multiple congressional offices, as well as officials within the Biden administration and DHS itself, have called for the closure of detention facilities, noting “egregious conditions,” including contaminated drinking water, inadequate medical care, forced sleep deprivation, prolonged solitary confinement, limited access to legal representation, and violent retaliation against detained people who advocate for better treatment. Even an ICE memo from August 2022 recommended the closure or significant reduction of nine facilities including Adelanto, Torrance, and Farmville, which are represented by our delegation today.
Members of the delegation provided the following statements:
Adrianna Torres-García, Deputy Director of Free Migration Project in Pennsylvania said: “As an abolitionist organization, it is imperative for us to educate Pennsylvania elected leaders about the need to shut down the immigrant detention centers at Moshannon, Elizabeth, Pike, and Clinton. Immigrant detention is a political choice, one that economically benefits a few at the cost of incarcerating thousands of immigrant people per year. People who have families and are unnecessarily ripped away from their communities for profit.”
Lizbeth Abeln, Deputy Director at the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice in California said: “The Adelanto Detention Facility is among the worst detention centers in the country. It is the largest in the West Coast and it has a long history of abuse, inhumane treatment, medical neglect, labor exploitation, and eight in custody deaths. People in immigrant detention centers report rodent and bug infestations, inedible food and undrinkable water. We are calling on elected officials to permanently shut down the detention facility, hold GEO Group accountable, and divest from for profit, private detention expansion.”
Sophia Genovese, Managing Attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center in New Mexico said: “Unlivable conditions, human rights abuses, and due process violations are the norm, not the exception, in immigrant detention centers all across the country – in red and blue states alike. People in immigrant detention centers report rodent and bug infestations, inedible food and undrinkable water, physical violence by prison officials, and an immigration court system that seeks to deport them as quickly as possible with no respect for even the minimal protections that do exist for immigrants. We urge our national leaders to eliminate immigrant detention, and focus our resources on building robust systems of support such as case management, integration services, and legal services to support immigrants to thrive in the United States.”
Elizabeth Schmelzel, Senior Supervising Attorney at Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia said: “We are here in solidarity with our clients and community members who have lived through the family separation and affront to human dignity that immigration detention creates. We join the resounding calls of our immigrant siblings to shut down detention centers here in Virginia and throughout the country. There can be no such thing as a humane immigration system so long as these facilities exist.”
Amber Qureshi, Staff Attorney at the National Immigration Project in Washington, DC said: “Our delegation in DC is here to center and represent the voices of countless people who have been impacted by our inhumane immigration detention system. We are thrilled to join our members and partners in DC to lift up the demands to end any expansion of detention, close down detention facilities, and free all people from detention. Members of Congress must listen to their constituents and call on ICE to end the barbaric practice of immigration detention once and for all.”
Jesse Franzblau, Senior Policy Analyst with the National Immigrant Justice Center in Washington, DC said: "People from across the country have traveled to DC to tell their members of Congress it is beyond time to end the systemic abuses that occur daily in ICE detention. Congress has the responsibility to take measures to ensure that ICE closes out the facilities with persistent substandard conditions, halt any attempts to enter into new contracts, and phase out the use of immigration detention."
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.