FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration is reportedly considering the reinstatement of the detention of migrant families, a practice it had previously ended.

The following statement is from Andrea Carcamo, policy director with Freedom for Immigrants:

“Family detention was wrong under previous administrations, and it is wrong today.

“The detention of families, like other forms of immigration detention, is defined by mistreatment and egregious abuses. Detention inflicts an irreparable toll upon families, and the scientific consensus is clear that children subject to detention are particularly prone to developmental damage and harm.

“Immigration detention — whether it be families, children or adults — is an inherently cruel and dehumanizing institution, one that is rooted in racism, xenophobia and corporations’ vested interest in profiting off of the suffering of Black and brown immigrants.

“Restarting family detention would be a disgrace, and the Biden administration must abandon any plans of doing so. Instead, the U.S. should devote its resources to restoring and strengthening the asylum system, and work to welcome migrant families with care and dignity — not cages.”

###

Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. FFI monitors the human rights abuses faced by immigrants detained by ICE through a national hotline and network of volunteer detention visitors, while promoting community-based services that welcome immigrants into the social fabric of the United States.