As of last week, there are no more people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in Illinois. February marked the end of the last county jail ICE contracts in the state, a result of the Illinois Way Forward Act which passed last year. The termination of any ICE detention contract is an opportunity for the government to release people so they can be with their families and communities during their immigration cases. However, advocates inside and outside the detention centers often have to get involved, in order to pressure the administration into doing the right thing. As ICE contracts in McHenry and Kankakee counties came to an end, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Organized Communities Against Deportation, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants, alongside organizers in McHenry and Kankakee Counties and supporters from throughout the state and country, together demanded that ICE free every immigrant detained in Illinois. By the time ICE vacated the McHenry and Kankakee jails, the Illinois Free Them All coalition had helped secure the release of 41 people since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, however, ICE transferred 30 other people to Oklahoma, Indiana, and Texas early in the morning on February 4, with only a few hours’ notice and no access to phones for people to communicate with their loved ones. Our coalition continues to advocate for their release, and demand accountability for ICE Chicago Field Director Silvie Renda and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ failure to uphold the Biden administration's commitment to a more “humane” and “just” enforcement process for those facing detention and deportation. |
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Angela Osorio (left) and NIJC Attorney Lisa Chun (right) speak at a press conference outside of the ICE Chicago Field Office on February 1, 2022. |
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Angela Osorio, a single mother of three who lives in the Chicago suburbs, joined the call for releases by speaking out with her story of surviving the trauma of ICE detention. She was detained at McHenry County Jail before ICE transferred her to Chase County in Kansas last year. Angela says that the separation from her boys was incredibly difficult, plunging her into a depression and endangering her mental and physical health. In January, Angela shared her story with members of Congress and others. Watch the video. |
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Weeks later, after Angela had been released and reunited with her children, she joined a rally and press conference in front of ICE’s Chicago Field Office, urging ICE to release more of the people she had been detained with. Angela’s message echoes on—even as Illinois ends its own chapter of immigration detention, communities in other states are continuing their own fights to end the practice. Under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, the immigration detention system has expanded, necessitating local communities to take the struggle into their own hands. Right now, Free Them All organizers in Maryland who won a campaign to end that state’s ICE contracts are still in the midst of a campaign to secure the release, not transfer, of everyone in the state’s jails. In Virginia, communities are fighting to stop the reactivation of the privately-run ICA Farmville Detention Center, which is largely empty after a court injunction resulting from the jail's mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis. Whether you've been advocating to end detention for a while or are ready to start, we invite you to join us in this fight. On March 3, NIJC is joining communities across the country for a #CommunitiesNotCages National Day of Action organized by the Detention Watch Network, We Are Home, and FIRM, calling on the Biden administration to end immigration detention and #FreeThemAll. Keep an eye on NIJC's Twitter and Facebook channels to learn more. Thank you for working alongside us to end the inhumane immigration detention system and free people who are trapped inside. -Alejandra Oliva
National Immigrant Justice Center |
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