On the fourth of July, Alexander sat down to write a letter to President Joe Biden. Alexander is a client of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and has been in detention at Winn Correctional Facility in Louisiana for months now, enduring mistreatment and neglect from guards. In his letter, Alexander asks the president to help him and other people who are detained alongside him. “I cannot bear this situation any longer,” he wrote. “I fled from my country to escape homophobia, persecution by the government, and persecution from the MS-13 gang, and coming to this country, which I thought was free, only to suffer.” Despite President Biden’s campaign promises to end detention, Alexander is one of a skyrocketing number of immigrants held in detention. The number of detained people has nearly doubled since January when President Biden took office, with more than 25,000 people held in deplorable conditions. Check out and share NIJC's Twitter thread tracking the number of people in detention and holding the Biden administration accountable. |
|
We are working hard towards ending immigrant detention because time and time again, it has been proven to be an unjust system that tears apart families and communities, subjects people to harassment and abuse, and harms those inside and outside of detention center walls. See our recent roadmap for the administration to dismantle the immigration detention system. For example: at the end of July, NIJC helped two men in Boone County Jail in Kentucky file a civil rights complaint about the mistreatment they received in detention. The men described racist treatment from prison officials, a lack of access to face masks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and no outdoor recreation. One of the men from East Africa said, “I have gone a long time without seeing the sun or the outdoors...This makes it easy for me to feel depressed.” These complaints are far from unusual within the detention system, one more reason we need to end detention. NIJC is working in coalition with organizations across the country to decrease the amount of federal funding going to immigration detention. Just yesterday, we and 131 other organizations released our top five immigration priorities for next year’s budget and hope the Biden administration takes note to redirect funding away from detention and enforcement and instead invest in our communities (share our Instagram post to show your support). |
|
We’re also working to ensure that people in detention centers closed down by their states are released, rather than transferred to another detention center even further away from their families and legal resources. After Pulaski County in Illinois suddenly announced it was ending its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain people in the Pulaski County Jail, 55 organizations including NIJC quickly mobilized to urge ICE to release people so they can navigate their court proceedings from the safety of their homes and communities. As for Alexander--over a month after writing to President Biden, he is still detained, held in solitary confinement. However, last month, he also spoke out bravely against the conditions of his detention in a rare interview from inside detention with the Associated Press. “I just want what everyone wants,” Alexander said, “to get out, be free and help support my family.” |
|
Share Alexander’s story on Facebook and Twitter to pressure ICE to release him and the 25,000+ others who are currently suffering in detention. Together, we’ll keep fighting to end detention and ensure that everyone has the freedom and dignity they deserve. -Alejandra Oliva
Communications Coordinator, National Immigrant Justice Center P.S. if you haven’t yet taken action, you can contact your members of Congress now and tell them to cut funding for abuses against immigrants. |
|
