John -- on Saturday, I got on a call from attorneys fighting for families at the Dilley and Berks family detention centers. What they told me shocked me.
ICE has started presenting families with a horrific choice: separate from your child or stay together in jail indefinitely while COVID-19 runs rampant. They even presented this choice to breastfeeding mothers!
You can imagine how they reacted. One mother broke down sobbing, pleading with God to help her understand why anybody would ask her that question. One father, outraged, told the guards: "You will never take my children from me."
They're trying to blackmail parents into signing away the rights to their children in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The cruelty is astounding. It's evil. And we will not let it stand.
So TODAY we're teaming up with our partner RAICES for a national day of action called #Families4Families. Here's how to join:
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Print the Families 4 Families sign or write out your own.
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Take a family selfie in support of those in detention.
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Post it on Facebook or Twitter and include the hashtag #Families4Families.
Imagine what the mothers in ICE detention are feeling right now. If they refuse ICE's pressure to separate them from their children, then ICE will claim that they've "waived" their child's right to release.
Their babies will remain locked away in crowded, unsanitary detention centers where the threat from coronavirus grows by the second. At least two people have already died from the virus in other ICE facilities.
If they consent, then their children will be sent into another government agency alone. We know how that story ends: with toxic stress, and severe trauma that many will never overcome.
The "choice" to separate from your family is no choice at all -- and we have to speak out. Join the national day of action today -- here's the plan:
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Print the Families 4 Families sign or write out your own.
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Take a family selfie in support of those in detention.
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Post it on Facebook or Twitter and include the hashtag #Families4Families.
Thanks for all you do,
Paola Luisi, Co-Director
Families Belong Together
Families Belong Together is a campaign of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). NDWA is the nation's leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States, most of whom are women. If you would like to get in touch with Families Belong Together, click here.
