Dear John,
Donald Trump has resurrected one of the most shameful chapters of American history: internment camps. From the massive Fort Bliss site in Texas to the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” on an abandoned airstrip in the Florida Everglades, his administration has turned military bases and empty runways into sprawling detention complexes.
Inside these facilities, people endure inhumane conditions: maggots in their food, sewage spilling onto the floors, bright lights left on all night to prevent sleep, and denied access to medical care. Attorneys have been restricted, monitored, or even blocked entirely from meeting with their clients, violating bedrock legal protections. Many of those detained are not criminals at all. Some are U.S. citizens. Some are children.
By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the same law used to justify WWII internment camps, Trump is dragging America backward into one of its darkest legacies. Billions of taxpayer dollars are funding this dystopian machine, all while our democracy is eroded and our values betrayed.
But people of faith and conscience are rising up. We are calling on the White House Faith Office, Pastor Paula White-Cain, Jennifer S. Korn, and Jackson Lane to stand on the side of compassion, justice, and democracy.
Tell the White House Faith Office to condemn Trump’s internment camps and demand an end to this moral catastrophe.
We know where silence in the face of injustice leads, more suffering, more families destroyed, more shame that will stain America for generations. We cannot let Trump normalize camps where migrants, families, and children are warehoused like enemies of the state.
The White House Faith Office claims to serve the moral conscience of this nation. Well, conscience demands courage. It demands compassion. It demands that faith leaders denounce Trump’s barbaric expansion of internment facilities and insist on humane treatment for every person, regardless of birthplace.
Every major faith tradition calls us to welcome the stranger, protect the vulnerable, and treat every person with dignity. Trump’s camps violate not only the Constitution, but also the deepest moral teachings that sustain communities of faith.
We must stand for justice, humanity, and democracy, and that means calling out Trump’s cruelty, racism, and authoritarianism.
Demand that the White House Faith Office condemn Trump’s migrant internment camps today.
Together, let’s defend human rights and democracy.
- DFA AF Team
