“It is well past time that children were released. No child should ever be detained because of their immigration status and the continued detention of children as a global pandemic has spread quickly and forcefully, has placed lives at great and unnecessary risk.
“We have documented again and again that conditions these children have been placed into are dangerous, unsupportive, and cannot arguably be considered in any child’s best interests during a health emergency. The best interests of the child are to be with their family, and their community.
“Children in ORR custody should be expeditiously released to sponsors, and children detained by ICE must be released together with their parents, guardians, and caregivers. It is unconscionable that ICE continues to balk at releasing children with their mothers and fathers, let alone from detention. ICE must stop separating families.
“Once released, the children can finally receive the care they needed all long, but only time will tell how many have been impacted by close contact in facilities and have had their health already compromised in dangerous and cruel ways.”
Background
Amnesty International USA is calling for the release of all families from ICE detention, and has launched a campaign featuring three families held in prolonged detention, including a 1-year-old who at one point was hospitalized and placed on a machine to breathe. Amnesty International USA is further calling for immigrants and asylum-seekers to be released, many who have family, faith, and other community members in the U.S. long waiting to welcome them, and for the government to ensure all people have the same access to care and safety – no matter where they may be. Amnesty International has documented the negligent care and ill treatment in immigration detention of people seeking safety in the U.S., including families in three ICE detention facilities, further jeopardizing them during COVID-19.
Amnesty International has documented how President Trump’s policy of family separation has in some cases constituted torture as defined under U.S. and international law, denounced the Remain in Mexico policy which has pushed asylum-seekers into dangerous and precarious conditions in Mexico, and spoken out against asylum agreements and asylum bans that cut off access to the U.S. asylum system.
To learn more about COVID-19 and human rights, visit: https://www.amnestyusa.org/distant-but-together-responding-to-covid-19/
Media contact: Mariya Parodi, [email protected]