Resistance needed: Trump and Republicans are trying to build more family prisons

Add caption

The petition to Congress reads: "Immigrant families belong together and free. Block any bill that gives Trump the power to imprison immigrant families indefinitely and build more family prisons, including the FAMILIES Act (S. 3478)." Add your name:

Reports of stomach-churning child abuse in detention centers should compel any lawmaker with a conscience to stop Donald Trump's xenophobic attacks, but Republican extremist Sen. Ron Johnson just introduced legislation that would push the United States over the cliff of cruelty.1 The FAMILIES Act would add more family prisons to Trump's deportation and mass incarceration machine and worsen the crisis of corruption and abuse at the border. Democrats and Republicans of good conscience need to do everything they can to block this bill. Tell Congress: No more Trump internment camps. Block legislation that would expand family prisons. Click here to sign the petition. Sen. Johnson introduced this cruel bill just as news broke that the Trump administration lost track of nearly 1,500 immigrant children it placed in detention facilities and foster care this year.2 This latest horrifying development is yet another example of how Trump's extreme anti-immigrant policies are made worse by his administration's incompetence. The ineptitude of Trump's ICE, CBP and DOJ was on full display this week. At a Senate hearing on Trump's latest proposal to nullify the Flores decree, a settlement that puts time limits on imprisoning children, Trump officials dodged fundamental questions and failed to defend the administration's push to expand family and child detention. ICE officials said that they didn't even bother to read warnings from agency doctors about the trauma detention inflicts on children.3 ICE's chief of arrests and deportations compared family prisons to "summer camps," again.4 Jeff Sessions' acting deputy assistant attorney general refused to comment on whether child abuse at detention centers would count as federal crime.5 These officials are either willfully ignorant Trump loyalists or completely incompetent. Either way, Congress should be putting checks on ICE and CBP, not empowering them to do more harm. Sen. Johnson's bill would allow Trump and Republicans to build more family prisons, make family detention mandatory and waive the polygraph requirement for many border patrol applicants, opening the door for more corruption and abuse. We must join together now to keep the pressure on Congress and demand that it reject any bill that would give Trump the power to imprison more immigrant families indefinitely. Will you add your name now? Tell Congress: No more Trump internment camps. Block legislation that would expand family prisons. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/stop_family_detention?t=7&akid=30124%2E3130208%2EM3KW1u - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Sen. Ron Johnson, "S.3478," introduced Sept. 18, 2018. Ron Nixon, "U.S. Loses Track of Another 1,500 Migrant Children, Investigators Find," The New York Times, Sept. 18, 2018. Amanda Michelle Gomez, "Trump officials claim they are unaware of health risks associated with child detention," ThinkProgress, Sept. 18, 2018. Tal Kopan, "ICE official stands by comparing detention centers to 'summer camp,' won't say if he'd send his kids to one," CNN, Sept. 18, 2018. Ibid.

Contact your senators today. Tell them #EndFamilyDetention and the Zero Tolerance

Stop Trump from locking up families. This is NOT a solution, just a change in how the damage is done.

The Trump Administration believes it has solved the crisis THEY created. After ripping 2,000 children from the arms of their parents they are now preparing to lock up huge numbers of families together. Halting the separation of families is NOT enough. We must end zero tolerance and the criminalization of immigrant families. Asylum seekers should not be detained, and detention of kids is NEVER in their "best interest."

No one will ever forget the harm and damage Trump inflicted on families fleeing persecution and violence, especially the children, some only months old, who will suffer indefinitely from trauma. This is NOT a solution, just a change in how the damage is done.

As you heard on Friday from my colleague Nicole, the Trump administration believes it has solved the crisis THEY created. After ripping more than 2,300 children from the arms of their parents they are now preparing to lock up huge numbers of families together.

But halting the separation of families is NOT enough. We must end zero tolerance and the criminalization of immigrant families. Asylum seekers should not be detained, and detention of kids is NEVER in their "best interest."

We will never forget the harm and damage Trump inflicted on families fleeing persecution and violence, especially the children, some only months old, who will suffer indefinitely from trauma.
This cruelty must STOP.

Contact your senators today. Tell them they should #EndFamilyDetention and the Zero Tolerance Policy.

CALL YOUR SENATOR

Contact your senators today on (202) 224-3121 and tell them they should support an end to family detention and the Zero Tolerance Policy.

- Jasmine L. Tyler, Human Rights Watch

nistration believes it has solved the crisis THEY created. After ripping  months old, who will suffer indefinitely from trauma.