John,

Government leaders are spending billions of dollars to expand repression and detention centers—primarily to punish people they disagree with, or who don’t fit the white supremacist vision of who belongs here.

Right now is Black August, an annual recognition of Black Americans resisting state violence and pushing for Black liberation. This month is a time to honor Black political prisoners, work to dismantle our country’s racist police/prison-industrial complex, and defend protesters from police repression.

We must also recognize that freeing people from cages includes freeing people locked up in ICE detention. Immigration agents and police disproportionately target Black people, so Black immigrants face higher rates of detention and deportation.

Please sign on to honor Black August and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, including people in ICE detention centers.

The urgency of this fight is clear: The racist-in-chief is militarizing Black neighborhoods, clawing back progress on civil rights, and censoring educational institutions’ race-related programming.

And it’s not just about who’s in office; it’s also about the structural inequity of our country’s systems.

For example, mass incarceration has grown massively in the past 50 years, and with that has come an increase in prison labor—a continuation of slavery. Due to racism, Black people are disproportionately imprisoned, and most of the 1.2 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails are forced to work for almost no pay and without basic rights.¹

In addition, the racial wealth gap is the widest it’s been since the civil rights movement. Black people will be among the most impacted by Republicans’ funding cuts to healthcare and nutrition programs.

Part of my fight against anti-Black oppression includes pushing for investments in long-underfunded Black communities and working with community leaders toward racial and environmental justice.

I’m also pushing in Congress to end mass incarceration and demilitarize police. For example, early in the pandemic I introduced a policy with Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers across the nation.

The Dismantle Mass Incarceration for Public Health Act would require the release of seniors, pregnant people, medically vulnerable people, and more. This is still relevant today, as most “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have COVID symptoms.  

I will keep fighting to free people from cages. Will you join me?

Please sign the petition to demand the release of all political prisoners in the United States, including people in ICE detention.

Thank you for speaking up for and alongside our neighbors in cages. Everyone deserves human dignity, and we will keep fighting for a world where everyone is free.

With you in the fight,

Rashida

¹ Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free”

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rashida Tlaib
Date: Tue, Aug 26, 2025
Subject: Sign to demand the release of all U.S. political prisoners, including people in ICE detention
To: [email protected]

John,

The fascist-in-chief is militarizing Black neighborhoods, attacking civil rights, and censoring Black history. Last week he criticized the National Museum of African American History and Culture for focusing on “how bad slavery was,” and he’s trying to reinstall taken-down Confederate monuments.¹

We’ve got to fight back against this white supremacist agenda.

Right now we’re in a month known as Black August: a time to honor Black people who’ve resisted state violence and struggled for Black liberation—particularly Black people who’ve been assassinated or imprisoned for this work. This tradition began in California prisons in the 1970s and continues around the country and the world.

Black August is a time to recommit to the fight for Black liberation, and to lift up organizers’ primary demand to release all U.S. political prisoners (people who are locked up for their political beliefs or for political aims).

This is especially urgent as Trump jails more protesters and immigrants. Black immigrants in particular face higher rates of criminalization and deportation than immigrants of other races. Unfortunately, they’re targeted by the same unjust criminal legal system that over-polices Black Americans.

Will you sign on to demand the release of all U.S. political prisoners, including people in ICE detention?

Early in the pandemic I introduced legislation to free incarcerated people from prisons and ICE detention centers in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which is still urgently relevant: This month most detainees in “Alligator Alcatraz” have had COVID symptoms.²

The administration is expanding ICE enforcement and detention, which means even more people will be trapped in the inhumane and overcrowded conditions that are characteristic of ICE detention centers. We must stop these human rights abuses.

As the administration expands repression and kidnappings in cities across the country, people are rising up to resist state violence.

I will continue advocating against ever-growing spending on policing, prisons, and war—and instead demanding much-needed investments in Black communities who’ve struggled due to chronic disinvestment and systemic racism.

Please join me and demand the release of all political prisoners, including people in ICE detention.

Thank you for taking action. Together we’ll keep building the movement for racial justice, including reparations, housing and healthcare for all, clean air and water, demilitarizing our police, ending mass incarceration, and delivering true public safety.

With you in the fight for freedom for all,

Rashida

¹ Trump Administration to Restore Confederate Monuments, Including Statue Toppled by Protesters
² ‘Petri dish for disease’: attorney raises alarm of possible Covid outbreak at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’