Our latest press releases on important news and events relating to immigration detention in the United States
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Washington, DC — Last night, details of an agreement by the conference committee emerged that show potential increases to the deportation forces of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including the building of 55 miles of border wall and a massive expansion of immigration detention.
Washington, DC — Amidst delicate negotiations in Congress over funding, ICE continues to rapidly increase the number of people it is locking up in its prison system, now standing at an astonishing 48,747 people per day, up more than 40 percent since Trump came into office.
El Paso, Texas — The nine Sikh asylum seekers on hunger strike in the El Paso Service Processing Center (EPSPC) have been thrown into solitary confinement after refusing to be force-fed standing up, reports their attorney after speaking with a family member. Immigrant rights advocates, civil rights organizations, and local community groups are deeply alarmed by this latest development involving the nine Sikh asylum seekers who have been on hunger strike for more than 40 days to protest their incarceration at the EPSPC.
Washington, DC — In response to Trump’s fear-mongering and divisive State of the Union address, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:
Washington, DC — This week, some Democratic members of the conference committee opened the door to further enable Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda with a proposal to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budget by $396 million and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) budget by $278 million. The proposal comes as Congress is negotiating a way to fund the government after February 15 or face another Trump imposed shutdown.
Disappointed by the initial proposal, the #DefundHate Coalition released the following statement:
Washington, DC — Today, Trump ended his self-imposed government shutdown that caused immense harm to hundreds of thousands of federal workers, contractors, and people reliant on critical government programs. The move by Trump occured after mass mobilizations across the country called for the end of his game to hold the government hostage in an effort to bankroll his harmful, ineffective border wall and anti-immigrant agenda.
Members of the Defund Hate Coalition issued the following statement:
Washington, DC — In response to Trump’s proposal to exchange massive increases in border wall funding for temporary protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, Mary Small, Policy Director of Detention Watch Network:
With thousands of federal workers on the cusp of a missed paycheck, President Trump staged a televised meeting today in McAllen, Texas, where he and members of his administration repeated the same hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric he has used since his candidacy to attempt to justify a federal government shutdown already taking a toll on American families and communities.
Washington, DC — More than two weeks into Trump’s shutdown of the federal government, the president continues to hold Americans hostage to his anti-immigrant agenda. Congress must continue to reject the president’s irrational demands to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for his border wall and the immigration enforcement and detention system that has separated thousands of families, put children in cages, and caused the deaths of migrants who came to the United States seeking safety and freedom.
Washington, DC — Last night, Trump and Republicans shut down the government over Trump’s hateful border wall.
While Trump is holding the government hostage in order to continue his attacks on immigrant communities, we are calling on Democrats and Republicans in Congress to reject Trump’s demands and pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) that does not include funding for a border wall or an increase in funding for the deportation agencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that operate with near impunity.
