URGENT: DHS MUST FREE PEOPLE FROM ICE DETENTION NOW

BREAKING: Congress just approved a whopping $23 billion to fuel DHS’s detention and deportation machine. This is more money to lock up MORE people, to keep building former President Trump’s lethal border wall, and to expand systems that criminalize, surveil, and infringe on the privacy of communities of color. It’s more important than ever to pressure President Biden to finally take a stand for immigrants and people seeking safety.

One year into the Biden administration, more immigrants and asylum-seekers are now locked up by ICE and at risk of deportation, while many others at the southern border are forced back into danger. Nearly all are Black, Brown or Indigenous.

The administration is responsible for the safety of people in its custody, and they are failing. Tens of thousands of lives are at stake.

Take action demanding President Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas free people from ICE detention, and restore access to asylum.

⬇ Make Your Voice Heard ⬇

President

DO NOT USE Joe

DO NOT USE Biden

Dear President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas:

I write with deep concern for the wellbeing of detained immigrants and asylum-seekers in the United States. No one should be detained for seeking safety or solely because of their immigration status, yet tens of thousands of people are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention when they should be free. You must reduce the use of detention – not expand it – and deliver on your promise to build a “fair and humane immigration system–restoring the progress Trump has cruelly undone and taking it further.”.

As initial steps, the President and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must: 
- establish an affirmative file review process with a presumption of liberty for all people in detention;
- phase out ICE contracts with private prison companies and local and county jails;
- close all family detention facilities instead of converting them to hold other populations;
- immediately stop expelling people at the border under Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and Title 42 and fully restore access to asylum; 
- permit asylum-seekers and immigrants to live in freedom, without surveillance, and supported by sponsors and community-based non-profits should they need assistance navigating the immigration process; and
- substantially decrease funds for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in fiscal year 2023.

DHS must swifty establish an affirmative file review process with a presumption of liberty for all people in detention. This process should prioritize those most vulnerable to harm in custody, including individuals who face a heightened risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, transgender people, pregnant people, and people living with HIV. While the  move to release all families is a start, former family detention facilities should be closed entirely – not repurposed to detain others.

For-profit detention must end. We applaud the announcement to end private contracts with Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities, and that must extend to privately operated immigration detention centers.  Vast human rights violations are linked to for-profit detention. DHS should develop and implement a plan to phase out the use of ICE contracts with private prison companies and  state and local facilities. This is particularly timely as ICE expanded into private detention facilities whose BOP contracts were terminated under that executive order,, including facilities that have storied histories of abuse against those detained inside. Ending contracts for facilities with the worst records for negligent and abusive care and conditions and lack of accountability should be prioritized.

COVID-19 has made detention facilities all the more dangerous and deadly, especially as new variants like Delta and Omicron spread even more prevalently. At least eleven people have tragically died after contracting COVID-19 in ICE detention. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases in ICE custody has risen to over 40,000 – a result of your administration’s increased reliance on detention and the reckless practice of transferring people between facilities.

In your budget request for fiscal year 2023, you included an important proposal to reduce immigration detention beds and funding for ICE’s enforcement and custody operations budgets. However, your request also proposed expanding CBP’s already vast budget and increasing funding for ICE’s dangerous e-carceration and surveillance programs. These restrictive and so-called “alternatives to detention” infringe on privacy; continue to criminalize, surveil, and harm immigrant families and people seeking safety; and have not resulted in fewer people in detention.

Your administration’s recent announcement to terminate the egregious Title 42 is an important step forward to restore the US government’s respect for the human right to seek asylum. I am grateful this unlawful and unnecessary policy will finally and rightfully be repealed. As you plan for the termination of Title 42 in May, your administration must not turn to the unnecessary over-reliance on immigration detention. Advocates and border communities are ready for an end 
to Title 42 and to welcome people fleeing violence and crisis. You must stand by them and asylum-seekers and ensure an end to expulsions under  Title 42  and the “Migrant Protection Protocols,” and stop any and all removals of Haitians.

Systemic reform to respect human rights means explicitly addressing the racism underlying the current system. Black, Indigenous, and Brown people bear the brunt of harsh, punitive immigration policies and practices anchored in detention, deportation, and deterrence. The cruelty and racism broadcast against Haitians seeking safety in Del Rio is just a snapshot of a much longer pattern of abuse against Black migrants and cannot go unanswered. Failure to address these harms undermines your stated commitment to racial equity and human rights.

People coming to the USA are seeking safety from horrific violence, persecution, torture, and other grave abuses in their home countries. Many are a part of our communities and have lived in the United States for years or even decades. They should be allowed to pursue the right to seek asylum or to stay here in safety, to live in freedom and without surveillance technology or under other restrictive programs. Asylum-seekers and immigrants can navigate the immigration process with the support of sponsors and community-based nonprofits, and many already have long-standing family, faith, and other community ties.

I urge you to live up to your campaign promises and take action immediately.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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