Organizational Letters to Congress

Dear President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas,

Our 193 immigrant and civil rights organizations urgently write to ask that you take immediate action to protect immigrant communities while you still can. In your remaining months in office, you have an opportunity to honor your stated commitments to the dignity and humane treatment of all people, including those who immigrate to our nation, before the next president follows through on his mass deportation plans, separating families and upending the lives of millions of people in the process.

We implore you to immediately take the following steps:

1. Close detention centers: We ask that you take action now to reduce Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention capacity. Many of our organizations have been calling for the closure of detention facilities, particularly those with extensively documented histories of inhumane and abusive conditions. Facilities across the system have documented instances of physical abuse, inadequate food and water, negligent or abusive medical care, unsanitary conditions, failed plumbing and more. Avoidable deaths in ICE detention centers are at record numbers. No one should be detained in these conditions. You promised to end the use of for-profit detention centers by the federal government and with over 90% detained at facilities run by private companies, this is your final chance to follow through on that promise.
2. Halt all expansion efforts: We ask that you immediately halt all efforts to expand the ICE detention system by freezing all negotiations and rescinding all Requests for Proposal (RFP) and Requests for Information (RFI). Throughout the last four years, ICE has been actively seeking to expand detention capacity through direct and indirect negotiations with private prison corporations and other entities. Just this year, the agency issued two RFIs seeking to massively expand the detention system across multiple states. Providing the incoming administration with an expanded system will have disastrous effects on our immigrant and mixed-status community members. To protect families and prevent separations, you must take all possible action to prevent the incoming administration from being able to easily expand detention capacity, including by pressuring Congress to pass a reduced appropriation for immigration detention.
3. Release people from detention: In tandem with canceling detention center contracts and halting expansion efforts, we ask that you take action to release people from detention, starting with particularly vulnerable populations (including people with physical and mental health conditions) and those eligible for parole, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or other protections. People can and should be able to go through their immigration proceedings in community with the support of their loved ones and access to legal support.

Now is the time to take decisive action to prevent catastrophe for millions of people and avoid handing the keys to an expanded and inhumane detention and deportation system to the next president.