• Press Release

Statement in Response to Closure of Tornillo Tent City

January 11, 2019

The following can be attributed to Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA:

“Warehousing thousands of children in tents for weeks and months on end has been one of the most disastrous policies of the Trump administration responding to children and families seeking safety at the border. We welcome the closure of the children’s detention camp in Tornillo and will hold the government to account in its assurance that the majority of the children will be moved to loving homes. Any children relocated to government shelters must be placed with waiting families and sponsors as soon as possible.

“But the Trump Administration’s policies of cruelty must stop. The policy of deliberately slowing the asylum process to a trickle must stop. The stigmatization of asylum seekers must stop. Detaining some families indefinitely while leaving others vulnerable to danger while they remain in Mexico must stop. The US government must take steps to fulfill its obligation to those seeking asylum and rectify this crisis of its own making.”

NOTE: Margaret Huang visited the Tornillo facility last year. A video made just after her visit can be found here: https://twitter.com/amnestyusa/status/1055845581321580544