Sign Now: Demand Journalists Be Given Immediate Access to Detention Centers

Journalist Emilio Gutierrez-Soto, right, and his son Oscar during an interview with CBC's Adrienne Arsenault at the El Paso Processing Centre, a U.S. immigration detention facility

Over the past year, immigrant and civil rights groups have witnessed a dramatic increase of immigration enforcement and detention due to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy along the border. This includes the practice of family separation, a policy that has left hundreds of children in child detention centers across the country.

Shelters that were at 30 percent capacity one year ago are now at 90 percent.[1]

According to a Health and Human Services official from the Obama administration:

“The closer they get to 100 percent, the less ability they will have to address anything unforeseen. Even if there’s not a sudden influx, they will be running out of capacity soon unless something changes.”

Thanks to dogged reporting by journalists along our southern border, we learned earlier this year about children and families being separated at the border. But that reporting was mainly from outside the detention centers, because the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement routinely denies or limits journalists access to child detention centers, arguing that they need to protect the privacy of children. But professional journalists are capable of reporting on children responsibly, and the government could easily negotiate with them on ways to do so.

Demand that journalists have access to detention centers so that the American people and the world can see the permanent harm the Trump administration’s policies are having on children and families in the name of our government.

Sign the petition today!

These shelters are not the solution but in order to hold the government accountable we need to have access to them.

- Daily Kos

Click here to send the following message.  (Add a personal comment for more impact. )

PETITIONING

Office of Refugee Resettlement

Our Message to Office of Refugee Resettlement:

Since May of 2017, the number of migrant children in custody has jumped from 2,400 to 12,800 as of September. The administration’s recent investment in “tent cities,” which provide harsh living conditions for children, is horrifying and unacceptable. The Office of Refugee Resettlement routinely denies or limits journalists access to child detention centers, arguing the need to protect the privacy of children. But professional journalists are capable of reporting on children responsibly. We demand that journalists be given immediate increased access to detention centers―to honor our constitutional right of freedom of the press and to ensure government transparency and accountability. Only through our free press will we begin to understand and be able to address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM MUST DO NO HARM

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services released a disturbing new plan that redefines life as beginning at conception and removes all references to LGBTQ people and their health needs – while heavily emphasizing the role of religiously affiliated organizations.

This is yet another case of this administration treating religion as a license to discriminate against women and LGBTQ people.

Religious freedom is a fundamental American value and a basic tenant of our Constitution, but it can’t be used as a weapon to cause harm to others.

This is why the ACLU is throwing it's full support behind the Do No Harm Act. This bill – currently in front of Congress – amends the too-frequently-misused Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ensure that protections for religious freedom can’t be used as an excuse to harm others.

Contact your representative today and tell them to co-sponsor the Do No Harm Act.

This bill would clarify that the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act can’t be used to exempt any business or individual from laws that:

*Prohibit discrimination
*Require equal pay
*Protect child welfare
*Guarantee access to health care

This latest news out of HHS follows a pattern of attacks on women’s health and LGBTQ equality under the guise of religious liberty. Most recently, the notorious “birth control rules” authorize employers and universities to deny employees and students contraceptive coverage based on religious or moral objections.

And the Justice Department’s sweeping new guidance to federal agencies encourages a dangerously broad reading of religious freedom laws that could endanger women, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities.

The Do No Harm Act furthers true religious freedom. It clarifies that we’re all free to practice our faith, but not to use religion as an excuse to cause harm to others

The Do No Harm Act would limit the dangerous ways we have been seeing the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) used to justify discriminatory acts in this country over the past two decades.

Specifically, the Do No Harm Act would clarify that the RFRA can’t be used to exempt anyone from laws that prohibit discrimination, require equal pay, protect child welfare, or guarantee access to health care.

The Do No Harm Act furthers true religious freedom.

We’re all free to believe – or not – as we see fit, and to practice our faith. What we can’t do is use religion as an excuse to discriminate against or harm others.

Tell your members of Congress you want them to co-sponsor the Do No Harm Act today.

- Louise Melling
ACLU Deputy Legal Director