ACLU Supporter –

It's time to put an end to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention machine.

That's why the ACLU sent a letter this week to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, urging him to announce an intent to close facilities across the country – and you can join us by sending a similar message today.

Over the past several decades, ICE detention has become another system of mass incarceration for Black and Brown people. It's costly, arbitrary, and rife with abuse. Last year alone, reports emerged of increased use of force, patterns of sexual abuse, forced sterilization, unprecedented fatality rates, and an utter failure to protect people from COVID-19 – all costing taxpayers over three billion dollars a year.

But right now, the Biden administration has a unique chance to shrink the architecture of immigrant detention and help repair its harm – starting by shutting down detention facilities and ensuring people already released due to COVID-19 can remain safely in their homes. In our letter, we listed 39 key facilities warranting this urgent attention, because they were opened by the prior administration without adequate justification, operate in remote locations with compromised access to counsel, or have a documented pattern of inhumane treatment or conditions. And by sending your own message to DHS now, you can help amplify our critical asks.

ACLU Supporter, our country has not always relied on the unjust detention of immigrants. Up until the 1980s, immigrants generally were free while they navigated the legal process. It was only as mass incarceration and private prisons became the norm that immigrant detention did as well – unsurprisingly, growing even more bloated during the Trump era.

But it doesn't have to continue. Lower detention rates during COVID-19 have shown us very clearly that immigrant detention is not just cruel, it's unnecessary. We can and must do everything in our power to put a stop to this inhumane system, and that includes taking this action today.

Please, tell DHS to shut down unjustifiable ICE facilities, and together, we can all work toward a future where immigrants, like all people in our country, have real due process under the law.

Thank you for taking action,

Isra Chaker
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Campaign Strategist, Equality Division, ACLU