Tell Congress stop privatizing incarceration of immigrant families and asylum seekers

Privatized detention and incarceration centers are hell on earth--and they are big business for private companies. Ending private detention is a way to start ending detention - period.

Between 2014 and 2018, the Office of Refugee Resettlement paid private companies $3.4 billion to house migrant children. Further, 44 percent of those companies face serious, well documented reports and allegations of child maltreatment.

In these centers children suffer from:

• Forced administration of psychotropic drugs
• Jail-like conditions with armed officers
• Physical abuse, sexual abuse and even death

Sign this petition to demand Congress end privatizing detention and incarceration now!

Another $2 billion is spent on adults facilities--more of which are being built to support Trump’s white nationalist immigration policy. These privatized detention centers are big money makers for the industry. And Trump has benefited from these industries, receiving monetary donations from industry CEOs. This is sickening and must end now.

 
Sign this petition to demand that Congress stop privatizing detention and incarceration centers that abuse thousands of immigrant children and families!

Message to Congress:

We demand that you end privatization of detention and incarceration of immigrant families and asylum seekers. These private contracts have led to documented cases of physical, psychological, and sexual abuses of children and families. Children have died in these facilities. End the suffering and injustices of these cruel companies. Stop privatizing detention of immigrant families now.

Participating Partners:

• Brave New Films
• CHIRLA
• Courage Campaign
• Daily Kos
• Franciscan Action Network
• People Demanding Action
• People's Action
• PFAW (People For the American Way)
• Progress America
• Rashida Tlaib for Congress
• United We Dream

Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance

The petition to southern border state U.S. attorneys reads: "Donald Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy is cruel and inhumane. It's causing chaos at the border and undermining basic constitutional rights. Refuse to enforce this racist policy and stop prosecuting immigrants without due process." Add your name: The fight to end Donald Trump's war on immigrants is a fight to protect our democracy. When Donald Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy went into effect, many federal courts in border states began enforcing it by conducting mass immigration trials. In Texas, federal courts are prosecuting up to 70 immigrants at once, making it impossible for defense attorneys to speak to each immigrant, let alone gather evidence and properly represent them in court.1 This violates immigrants' basic constitutional rights to due process and effective legal representation. U.S. attorneys can and should use their discretion to safeguard constitutional rights instead of following racist directives that undermine them. Speak out now to demand that all border state U.S. attorneys refuse to prosecute immigrants without due process and stop enforcing Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy. Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance. Click here to sign the petition. Trump and Jeff Sessions' zero-tolerance policy criminalizes every undocumented immigrant – including asylum seekers – and gives DHS and CBP the power to separate and lock up immigrant families. Border enforcement already ripped an estimated 2,700 children from their families and imprisoned them in cages.2 Massive public pressure forced Trump to address this cruel policy, but his latest executive order created another crisis. Instead of decriminalizing and reuniting immigrant families, Trump expanded family detention. Now, DHS has the power to imprison immigrant families indefinitely.3 That is unacceptable. The Trump regime is treating immigrants like enemies of the state when in fact, the most dangerous threats to our democracy are occupying the Oval Office and leading the Department of Justice. Trump and Sessions' zero-tolerance policy allows Trump's cruel regime to undermine basic constitutional rights so it can tear apart and lock up any community whose presence in the United States threatens the white supremacy at the core of the administration's agenda. U.S. attorneys have the power to stop this attack on immigrants and our Constitution by simply not complying. We need to make sure they use it. Early this week, I joined hundreds of activists from across the country in San Diego, California to expose and publicly condemn U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman for collaborating with Trump's hateful regime and demand that he protect the constitutional rights of immigrants at the border.4 Now, we must keep the pressure on all border state U.S. attorneys and demand that they stop enforcing Trump's racist directives immediately. Tell border state U.S. attorneys: Defend the Constitution. Stop enforcing zero-tolerance. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/usattorneys_resisttrump?t=7&akid=29177%2E3130208%2EUtX33B - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Lindsay Van Dyke and Roberto Daza, "The U.S. is conducting mass immigration trials at the border. Here's what it's like," VICE, June 12, 2018. Dara Lind, "The Trump administration’s separation of families at the border, explained," Vox, June 15, 2018. CBS News, "Trump administration calls for expanded use of immigrant family detention," June 23, 2018. Kate Morrissey, "Protesters blockade federal courthouse, drape banner from hotel; 10 arrested," The San Diego Union-Tribune, July 2, 2018.

Petition to Homeland Security Secretary: Stop detaining immigrants seeking asylum

The petition to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reads: "Stop detaining immigrants seeking asylum." Add your name: Donald Trump's cruel administration is slamming the door on asylum seekers and locking them up. This needs to stop now. A caravan of women, children and families escaping political persecution and gang violence in Central America who are seeking asylum in the United States just arrived at the southern border, and Trump is treating them like military combatants. He has threatened to lock them up upon arrival and even deployed the National Guard to defend the border.1 This is a blatant attempt by Trump to manufacture a state of emergency on immigration to militarize the border and rally support for his wall. We cannot sit by while his cruel administration threatens and imprisons people seeking asylum. Tell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop detaining asylum seekers. Click here to sign the petition. The United States once welcomed the "tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free." In Trump's America, people could lose their families and freedom for seeking refuge in the United States. From 2010 to 2013, DHS granted parole to asylum seekers in the Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Newark and Philadelphia regions 89 percent of the time. Since Trump took office, that number has plummeted to four percent.2 Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents have: Jailed a mother and her 7-year-old daughter seeking asylum and fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ICE held the daughter in a youth shelter thousands of miles away from where it detained her mother for months.3 Locked up a mother and her 11 and 3-year-old children fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. ICE refused to give the mother any information about her children's' whereabouts for more than a month.4 Imprisoned a father and his infant son seeking asylum from El Salvador. ICE detained the infant son hundreds of miles away from his father.5 The right-wing Roberts Supreme Court recently ruled to allow the federal government to detain immigrants indefinitely. That ruling means DHS could keep asylum seekers behind bars for months and even years as their cases move forward in court.6 And it's already happening. The Salvadoran infant asylum seeker is now with his mother. His father is still locked up in the United States despite following all procedures for seeking asylum. That is unacceptable. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for illegally detaining asylum seekers with credible cases in order to deter others from seeking asylum.7 Now, it's up to us to keep the pressure on. The more signatures we gather, the brighter the light we shine on the Trump administration's attacks on asylum seekers and its blatant attempt to exploit a caravan of refugees to militarize and wall off the border. Tell DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop detaining asylum seekers. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/protect_asylum?t=7&akid=28311%2E3130208%2Eslieex - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Elliot Spagat, "Central American asylum seeking caravan reaches US border," The Washington Post, April 26, 2018. Alan Gomez, "Asylum seekers sue Trump administration over prolonged detention," USA Today, March 15, 2018. John Burnett, "To Curb Illegal Immigration, DHS Separating Families At The Border," NPR, Feb. 27, 2018. Michael E. Miller and Jon Gerberg, "l‘Where’s Mommy?’: A family fled death threats, only to face separation at the border." The Washington Post, March 18, 2018. Kate Morrissey, "Asylum-seeking fathers separated from children by ICE," San Diego Tribune, Dec. 4, 2017. Domenico Montanaro, Richard Gonzales and Nina Totenberg, "Supreme Court Ruling Means Immigrants Could Continue To Be Detained Indefinitely," NPR, Feb. 27, 2018. Maria Sacchetti, "ACLU sues Trump administration over detaining asylum seekers," The Washington Post, March 15, 2018.