**Freedom for Immigrants Leads Introduction of Bill to End ICE Transfers*
*

**

*Media Contact: Rebekah Entralgo, [email protected]*

*

WASHINGTON, DC — Freedom for Immigrants is proud to support the office
of Representative Jason Crow (CO-6) joined by Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) and
Veronica Escobar (TX-16) in leading the introduction of theEnd Transfers
of Detained Immigrants Act
<[link removed]>in
the House of Representatives.Companion legislation
<[link removed]>was
introduced in the Senate on September 25 by Senators Michael Bennet
(D–CO) and Jeff Merkley (D–OR).

The bill would halt ICE’s dangerous practice of conducting  transfers
during the COVID-19 pandemic, including moving people between
immigration detention centers and moving them from jails and prisons
into immigration detention.  The bill would also require ICE to ensure
social distancing in its facilities at all times or release sufficient
numbers of people to facilitate social distancing.

As Freedom for Immigrants has consistentlydocumented
<[link removed]>through our national
monitoring program since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, transfers
to and from ICE prisons have directly led to COVID-19 outbreaks both
within detention and our broader communities, directly causing deaths
and jeopardizing public health for all of us. In several cases,
transfers have led to deaths in detention, making fiscal year 2020 the
deadliest for immigrants in ICE custody in over a decade. Recently,
transfers have become a tool for the White House to conductmass
deportations
<[link removed]>of
Black immigrants.

“ICE transfers are deadly and irresponsible: full stop. The process
worsened the COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in a record number of deaths
in ICE detention,”  said Sarah Gardiner, policy director at Freedom for
Immigrants. “A moratorium on transfers during the COVID-19
pandemic—combined with policies that echo the demands of the movement to
#FreeThemAll— is necessary to save lives as the current administration
continues to recklessly act in a manner that is increasing COVID-19
transmission rates for all, including immigrants.”

“In our district, we’ve seen firsthand how unnecessary detainee
transfers between facilities can increase the risk of COVID-19 exposure
and other communicable disease. In May, I called on the Department of
Homeland Security to end this practice because of the threat it posed to
the health of detainees, staff, and our community’s public health,” said
Rep. Jason  Crow. “This bill is driven by our community’s experience and
commitment to immigrants in our care. If there are measures we can take
to prevent the spread of the virus and protect our health, we should
take them. This bill is as common sense as it is necessary in the fight
against COVID-19.”

The bill is endorsed by 63 national, state, and local organizations,
including: Freedom for Immigrants; Detention Watch Network; American
Immigration Lawyers Association; Church World Service; American Friends
Service Committee; Alianza Americas; New York Immigration Coalition;
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP); South Asian Americans Leading
Together; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA); Immigrant
Legal Resource Center (ILRC); Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund;
Southeast Immigrant Rights Network; Faith Bridges Initiatives; Southeast
Asia Resource Action Center; Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC;
Planned Parenthood Federation of America; T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for
Human Rights; Latin America Working Group (LAWG); Wind of the Spirit
Immigrant Resource Center; Farmworker Association of Florida; Alianza
Nacional de Campesinas; Community Asylum Seekers Project;  California
for Bernie Sanders 2020; Women for Justice; Prairielands Freedom Fund;
Queer Detainee Empowerment Project SOLACE Visitation Program; Advocate
Visitors with Immigrants in Detention; Etowah Visitation Project;
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition; Conversations with Friends;
Guadalupe Presbyterian Church Detention Ministry; Kern Welcoming and
Extending Solidarity to Immigrants; SCPK; Immigrant Action Alliance; The
Mami Chelo Foundation Inc; Riverside Sojourners Detention Visitation;
Bristol County for Correctional Justice; Cenla – AID; Louisiana
Advocates for Immigrants; Refugee Support Network; NH Conference United
Church of Christ Immigrant and Refugee Support Group; Workers Center of
Central New York; Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities; Adelanto
Visitation Network; Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights;
Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition; Cleveland Jobs with
Justice; Reformed Church of Highland Park; Deportation and Immigration
Response Equipo; Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War; Desert
Support for Asylum Seekers; Iowa Unitarian Universalist Witness and
Advocacy Network; Iowans for Immigrant Freedom; Connecticut Shoreline
Indivisible; Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus; Asian
Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago; El Refugio; Asian Americans
Advancing Justice-Atlanta; Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law
Caucus; Friends of Immigrants; Transcend Arizona

##

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--
Rebekah Entralgo | She/Her/Ella
Media Advocacy Strategist
FREEDOM for IMMIGRANTS
Cell: 786-897-4080
www.freedomforimmigrants.org

Freedom for Immigrants is working to abolish immigration detention. Learn more & donate here.

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