fbpx
Go to Press Releases library
Press Releases

Necessary to End Family Detention & Reform Procedures, Agree 188 Organizations

As women and children seek safety in the United States, they are increasingly detained–a situation that exacerbates their trauma and abridges their rights. 188 organizations–includiing faith-based groups, civil rights advocates, educators, and legal experts–are calling for the following reforms:

  • Families must not be subject to detention except in exceptional circumstances.
  • Families must receive full due process at the border.
  • Families should not be detained for purposes of deterrence.
  • Families should not be separated.
  • DHS should use other tools besides detention to mitigate flight risk where there is a demonstrated concern.

Dear Mr. President:

In light of recent developments and ongoing negotiations in litigation on the detention of immigrant families, we, the undersigned 188 immigrants' rights, faith-based, civil rights, human rights, survivors’ rights, and criminal justice reform organizations, international educators, and legal service providers, urge your administration to end the practice of family detention.

Since the expansion of family detention a year ago, growing evidence continues to demonstrate that mothers and children detained in the Karnes County (TX), Dilley (TX), and Berks County (PA) family detention facilities are largely seeking protection in the United States. Detention has had a traumatic impact on the mental health and well-being of these families, and on children in particular, especially given the trauma they have already faced in Central America. These mental health effects are compounded where families have suffered detention that is prolonged and indefinite in nature. A growing number of Members of Congress have voiced their opposition to the detention of families, and a steady stream of news articles and human rights reports illustrate that families cannot be detained humanely.

In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stopped detaining families at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center (TX) following litigation and human rights reports decrying the practice. Today the status of two different lawsuits challenging current family detention policies should point to the same conclusion. In February 2015 a D.C. District Court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in R.I.L.R. v. Johnson finding that the government cannot detain asylum-seeking mothers and children from Central America as a means to deter others from fleeing to the United States, and required that the government conduct individualized determinations to evaluate whether a family poses a danger or a flight risk that would require detention. More recently, negotiations are currently underway in litigation to enforce the Flores Settlement, in which plaintiffs argue that current family detention practices in secure and unlicensed facilities violate the longstanding settlement agreement in Flores v. Meese, which protects the rights of children in immigration custody and generally favors their release.

These developments make clear that DHS should not continue current practices of holding parents and children together in confinement. DHS must bring its detention policies into line with domestic law as well as our international obligations. As your administration charts a course forward, we urge you to uphold the following principles:

Families must not be subject to detention except in exceptional circumstances.

The dramatic expansion of family detention has resulted in many mothers and children being detained at a high cost to their mental health and physical well-being. Detention of mothers and children has been extended even after they pass credible fear and reasonable fear screening interviews, first through a policy of no-bond and no-release for virtually all detained families – a policy which remains in place for certain families not covered by the RILR injunction – and currently through DHS’ imposition of prohibitively high bond amounts. DHS has broad authority to release from detention vulnerable populations who do not pose a flight or public safety risk either on recognizance or, where necessary, with additional measures such as alternatives to detention. These should include case management services to ensure that families are informed of their legal rights and obligations and receive appropriate referrals to social and legal services.

Families must receive full due process at the border.

Since last summer many Central American mothers and their children fleeing violence have been subjected to expedited removal and “mandatory detention,” often in remote locations that severely inhibit access to counsel, due process, and protection. Moreover, there is evidence that many migrants are unable to express a fear of return during expedited removal at the border because Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers fail to ask questions about protection needs or accurately capture responses to such questions. DHS is now “reinstating” prior orders of removal against mothers who are apprehended with their children and subjecting these families to detention. Instead of placement into expedited or reinstatement of removal, all families should be placed in full hearings before an immigration judge under section 240 of the Immigration and Nationality Act – an essential due process safeguard against deporting mothers and children to violence and persecution.

Families should not be detained for purposes of deterrence.

Detaining one family to stop another from coming to the United States is illegal, unjust, and ineffective. The district court in R.I.L.R. rejected the U.S. government’s arguments that family detention was justified as a means to deter future migration, and instead required the government to assess whether detention is necessary to mitigate an individual’s flight or public safety risk. Further, the use of detention to dissuade a mother, child, or other individual from seeking asylum is inconsistent with U.S. obligations under international norms.

Families should not be separated.

The Flores Settlement applies to all children in DHS custody, including those detained with their parents, and favors a policy of release and reunification except for narrow exceptions. Wherever possible, children should be reunited with a parent or legal guardian. In order to effectuate the rights of children under the Flores Settlement, in the case of families apprehended at the border, DHS should release both parent and child except where extreme and unusual circumstances would necessitate otherwise. Compliance with the Flores Settlement must not result in a parent being detained while a child is released.

DHS should use other tools besides detention to mitigate flight risk where there is a demonstrated concern.

Families apprehended at the border generally have relatives or other strong community ties in the United States to whom they could be released during the pendency of their removal proceedings. Where an individualized assessment demonstrates that a family poses a flight risk, DHS should turn to community-based alternatives to detention (ATD) – not detention – to mitigate that risk. In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently issued a Request for Proposals specifically for case management ATD programs appropriate for families. As detailed in your FY 2016 budget request, current ATD programs save taxpayer dollars, costing approximately $5 per day compared to $343 per day for a family detention bed. Current ATDs have high compliance rates, with 99% appearance at immigration court hearings and 84% compliance with removal orders.1

The writing on the wall is clear – DHS should not detain children and their parents in jail-like facilities. We urge you to undo the harsh family detention policies set in place in summer 2014 and implement a more just and humane approach. Family detention should not be your legacy. Now is the time to end it once and for all.

For more information, please contact Katharina Obser of the Women’s Refugee Commission (katharinao@wrcommission.orgjlin@aclu.org

Sincerely,

National Organizations

Advancing Justice – AAJC

Alliance for a Just Society

Alliance for Citizenship

Alliance of Baptists

America's Voice Education Fund

American Civil Liberties Union

American Friends Service Committee

American Immigration Council

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Americans for Immigrant Justice

ASISTA Immigration Assistance

Bend the Arc Jewish Action

Casa Esperanza

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc (CLINIC)

Center for Community Change

Center for Constitutional Rights

Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

Center for Popular Democracy

Church of Scientology National Affairs Office

Church of the Brethren, Office of Public Witness

Church World Service

Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach

Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Council on American-Islamic Relations

Detention Watch Network

Disciples Home Missions, U.S. and Canada

Disciples Women, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

DREAM Action Coalition

Fair Immigration Reform Movement

Farmworker Justice

First Focus

Franciscan Action Network

Franciscans for Justice

Gamaliel

Grassroots Leadership

HIAS

Human Rights Defense Center

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

Immigrant Defense Project

Immigrant Justice Corps

In The Public Interest

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Jesuit Conference, National Advocacy Office of the Jesuits of the United States

Just Detention International

Justice Strategies

Kids in Need of Defense

Latin America Working Group

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Leadership Team of the Felician Sisters of North America

League of United Latin American Citizens

Legal Momentum

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities

National Alliance to End Sexual Violence

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

National Education Association

National Immigrant Justice Center

National Immigration Forum

National Immigration Law Center

National Immigration Project of the NLG

National Korean American Service and Education Consortium

National Latin@ Network of Casa de Esperanza

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

National LGBTQ Task Force

NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Office of JPIC, Comboni Missionaries, N. American Province

Physicians for Human Rights

PICO National Network

Redwood Justice Fund

Reform Immigration FOR America

Refugee & Immigration Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)

Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas

Sisters of Mercy South Central Community

SOA Watch

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Tahirih Justice Center

The Advocates for Human Rights

The Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Network for Economic Justice

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

United Church of Christ

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

United We Dream

Washington Office on Latin America

We Belong Together

Women's Refugee Commission

Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights at the University of Chicago

 

State/Local Organizations

African Services Committee

Agora

Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice

Alliance San Diego

Asian Law Alliance

Austin Immigrant Right Coalition

Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera

Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, NYU Center for Health and Human Rights

Cambodian Women Networking Asso.

CASA

Causa Oregon

Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-LA)

Central West Justice Center

Cherokee Family Violence Center

CHIRLA

Church Council of Greater Seattle

Coaliton of Latino Leaders–CLILA

Colectiva Legal del Pueblo

Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, a project of the AFSC CO

Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto

Conversations With Friends (Minnesota)

El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos

Faith Action Network

Families for Freedom

Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project

Franciscan Peace Center

Friends of Broward Detainees

Georgia Detention Watch

Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights

Global Family Legal Services

Greater Reading Immigration Project

Her Justice

HIAS Pennsylvania

Human Rights Iniative of North Texas

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project

Immigrants' Rights Clinic of Boston University School of Law

Immigration Center for Women and Children

Immigration Taskforce, Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Immigration Team of the MN Conference of the UCC

Jewish Community Action

Juntos

Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts

Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center

Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center

Latin American Coalition

Latino Education & Training Institute

MAIZ San Jose

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Mayflower Immigration Team

Michigan Immigrant Rights Center

Migrant Power Movement

Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women

MN Conference of UCC Immigration Team

NE MN Synod Task Force on Immigration, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers Justice of the ELCA

Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest

New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia

New York Immigration Coalition

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

OneAmerica

Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish

Pangea Legal Services

Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center

Philadelphia JACL

Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada

Promise Arizona

Queer Detainee Empowerment Project

RAICES

RAISE: Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast

Reformed Church of Highland Park, NJ

Rights for All People (RAP)

Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network

Russian-speaking Community Council of Manhattan and the Bronx, Inc. (RCCMB)

Sanctuary for Families

SEIU 521

Seattle Human Rights Commission

Ser Familia, Inc.

Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN)

Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center

Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa

State Bar of New Mexico, Immigration Law Section

Stop The Checkpoints

Students Advocates for Higher Education at San Jose State University

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic

Unitarian Universalist PA Legislative Advocacy Network

United Methodist Women

Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights

Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO)

Voz Hispana Cambio Comunitario

Workers Defense Project

Young Immigrants in Action – SC