As a result of the huge budget cuts Congress made to life-saving programs like Medicaid and SNAP in its budget reconciliation bill this summer, millions of Americans are losing access to healthcare and nutrition assistance. Meanwhile, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). With this funding, they are terrorizing communities and targeting and arresting families.
These families are then sent to the only family immigration detention facility in the country, the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX, where conditions are shocking. People with chronic health conditions or medical emergencies are being denied the care they need, infants are experiencing alarming weight loss, and families are denied access to adequate clean drinking water, forced in many cases to drink tap water at the facility that is foul-smelling and known to cause upset stomachs.
Alarmingly, many families are held in these prison-like conditions without due process for weeks on end, and many families are separated from each other while they are detained. Most likely, they will spend the holidays in these conditions.
After being ripped away from their schools, neighborhoods, homes, friends, toys, and familiar routines, children detained in Texas frequently aren’t even being allowed access to crayons. Compared to the serious human rights abuses families in detention are experiencing, this detail may seem small, but it demonstrates the cruelty with which ICE is denying children the experiences of joy, creativity, and play that every child deserves.
Detaining families has nothing to do with creating a safe, orderly, fair immigration system or advancing national security.
Family detention is always inhumane. Detention inflicts profound harm on both children and adults that continues long after they are released, but it is especially traumatizing for children. Â
As long as these facilities remain open, our elected leaders must use their oversight power to enforce existing laws and hold ICE accountable for upholding due process and maintaining safe and sanitary conditions.
Tell your members of Congress they must:
- End the inhumane policy of family detention
- Use their Congressional oversight authority to hold ICE accountable for complying with the law
- Demand due process
- Ensure the health and safety of the families they detain by demanding clean drinking water, hygienic conditions, access to healthcare, and educational opportunities for children.
Contact your members of Congress by:
Below is an email template you can use:
SUBJECT LINE: ICE is denying families clean water, medical care, due process, and basic human dignity
Dear (Title) (LAST NAME),
My name is (FIRST NAME) (LAST NAME), and my zip code is (ZIP CODE). I am writing to you as a constituent to express my deep concerns about the families who are being detained in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, and to ask you to take action to end the cruel and dangerous policy of family detention.
ICE is currently detaining hundreds of parents and children in Dilley, where conditions are horrific. People with chronic health conditions or medical emergencies are being denied the care they need, infants are experiencing alarming weight loss, and families are denied access to adequate clean drinking water, forced in many cases to drink tap water at the facility that is foul-smelling and known to cause upset stomachs.
Detention also interrupts children’s education. After being ripped away from their neighborhoods, homes, friends, toys, and familiar routines, children detained in Texas frequently aren’t even being allowed access to educational opportunities or even crayons to play with. ICE is depriving children of the opportunities to learn, play, and create that every child deserves. These deprivations place families’ health and safety at risk and leave lasting psychological scars.
Shockingly, some families are being held in these appalling conditions for weeks on end, in violation of the Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets out minimum standards for the treatment of migrant children in government custody, including limits on the length of time that children can be detained. Most families never get to speak with an attorney or appear before a judge before they are deported, and many are sent back to dangerous, life-threatening conditions.
As a constituent, it is unacceptable to me that billions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to ICE so that it can continue terrorizing communities, separating families, committing human rights abuses, and locking up parents and children in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
As my member of Congress, I am asking you to stand up for the safety and well-being of immigrant children and families by ending the heartless policy of family detention.
Additionally, as long as families remain detained in Dilley or anywhere else, I urge you to use Congressional oversight authority to uphold the law–and basic human decency–and put a stop to the widespread abuse and neglect that children and adults are experiencing in ICE custody. Demand that immigration officials provide these families with adequate opportunities to consult with counsel, clean drinking water, hygienic conditions, access to healthcare, and educational opportunities for children.
Detention is no place for children. I will continue to follow this situation closely, and I look forward to your response. Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
(FIRST NAME) (LAST NAME)
Below is a phone script you can use:
Hello, my name is (full name), and I’m a constituent living in (city, town, or zip code). I’m reaching out today to ask my Representative/Senator to do everything in their power to end the dangerous policy of family detention as soon as possible.
Families in ICE detention are currently being denied clean drinking water and access to medical care, and their children are being deprived of the opportunity to go to school or even draw with crayons. As long as families continue to be held in immigration detention, I urge you to use your Congressional oversight power to protect due process and ensure that health, safety and other rights are respected for the families inside, and use your platform to work to end the practice of family detention once and for all. Thank you.
Tweet and tag your Congress members:
(target_X_handle), parents & kids in ICE detention are denied access to due process, clean water, medical care, school, & even crayons. End family detention now! #FreeFamilies
(target_X_handle), why is Congress taking away Americans’ healthcare superfunding ICE to terrorize communities, separate families, & lock up parents & kids in jails where there is no clean water, medical care, school, or even crayons? Stop the cruelty. End family detention! #FreeFamilies