When families flee persecution and violence, children should remain with their parents. Women, children, and families should have secure access to medical care, food, water, and sanitary equipment. Treating people with respect and dignity should be a given. Instead, we continue to witness a horrific and continued pattern of family separation and abuse in immigration detention facilities across the country.
Children are separated from parents, neglected, and even die at the hands of the federal government:
- Lawyers say they can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by the administration, according to a new filing last week from the ACLU.
- The government forces children from their parents — “We need to take away children,” no matter how young — under a cruel and unlawful family separation policy attempting to deter asylum seekers at the border.
- DHS and the administration violate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which requires children to be released from detention after no more than 20 days.
- In recent years, multiple children have died in government custody. Children allege numerous cases of neglect, harassment, and sexual assault. The mistreatment and death of children is the very reason why they should not be held in detention facilities in the first place.
Detention facility reports show medical malpractice, reproductive abuse, and neglect of the unique needs of women:
- In September, a whistleblower identified forced sterilizations at a Georgia ICE facility.
- The whistleblower complaint is part of a broader pattern of longstanding and systemic failures to provide adequate medical and mental health care in detention facilities.
- Pregnant women in detention describe limited or no access to healthcare services, unsanitary facilities, and lack of medical professionals, while reports show increasing numbers of miscarriages in detention.
- On top of all of these abuses, women lack secure access to food, water, and feminine sanitary products.
These family separation and medical malpractice patterns are policies reminiscent of America’s dark past, policies we denounce vehemently.
As a nation we should demand humane treatment of all people. We must continue investigations into ICE detention facilities. We must enact policies which reunite families and ensure humane treatment of people while their asylum claims are being heard.
Call Congress now. Because we can make a difference when we demand oversight and humane policies.
| Sen. Deb Fischer 202-224-6551 |
Sen. Ben Sasse 202-224-4224 |
| Rep. Jeff Fortenberry 202-225-4806 |
Rep. Don Bacon 202-225-4155 |
Rep. Adrian Smith 202-225-6435 |
Ask your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative to:
- Continue investigating human rights abuses in immigration detention facilities. Enforce protections for children, families, and pregnant women when facilities violate the law and standards of care.
- Investigate family separations and pass policies that stop separation, reunite families, and ensure people are treated with dignity and respect while waiting for their cases to be heard.
Every child deserves to be with their parents and family. Every person deserves dignity, autonomy over their medical choices, and access to medical care.
Raise your voice for dignity.