Washington, DC — In response to an alarming report that the Trump administration is considering utilizing shipping-containers to detain people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:
“The administration’s solicitation of shipping containers to detain people is outrageous and enraging. We’re talking about people – neighbors, friends, coworkers, family members – who Trump wants to lock away in containers that are meant for construction storage. This is the latest depraved development in a cruel agenda by the Trump administration to dehumanize and vilify migrants. It is not an exaggeration to say that Trump’s immigration detention expansion plan will cost billions of dollars and cause immediate harm and long-lasting damage to people and to the very fabric of our values as a nation. It’s already clear that Trump is intent on paying for this cruelty by cutting funding for critical programs and services that help all Americans in order to pump that money into the detention and deportation system. This moment demands a national outcry — none of us can remain silent on Trump’s excessive cruelty and our elected leaders must vocally oppose this mass detention and deportation agenda by denying Trump the resources he needs to carry out his plans, including by cutting funds to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).”
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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.