Defund Hate Campaign on Appropriations Bill: Allowing Unchecked Spending by ICE and CBP Will Fuel Further Abuse and Deaths of Immigrants

Washington, DC — On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1158 (116), which will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue expanding its detention and deportation force. The bill allows ICE and CBP to continue taking money from other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies and gifts DHS $1.37 billion to continue building deadly border walls. 

FY20 Spending Bill Will Lead to Immigration Detention Expansion

Media Contact: Rebekah Entralgo, rentralgo@freedomforimmigrants.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

WASHINGTON, DC — Freedom for Immigrants urges Congress to reject a spending bill that will expand the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) detention and deportation apparatus. 

Under the proposed FY20 spending bill, both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) budgets are higher than FY19, with CBP receiving an additional $1.375 billion for the Trump administration’s border wall construction. While ICE’s funding for detention is at the same levels as FY19, the bill proposes an overall budget increase for the agency, from $7.9 billion in FY2019 to a proposed $8.4 billion. Critically, the proposed FY2020 spending bill places no restriction on the administration’s transfer authority. As a result,the already record amount of funding for immigration detention could increase even more. The administration can continue to re-appropriate funds from other DHS agencies — as it has with FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Department of Defense in the past — to fund its detention and deportation machine. 

Although the bill also includes oversight and transparency measures — including the creation of an Immigration Detention Ombudsman — a $20 million funding increase for the Office of Inspector General, increased reporting requirements for DHS, and access to immigrant detention facilities by Members of Congress without prior notice, these measures lack enforcement mechanisms. Without robust means to hold DHS accountable, we fear that we will see a continuation of long-standing patterns of abuse. 

“Freedom for Immigrants urges members of Congress to stand with immigrants and vote against a budget that will result in the expansion of an abuse-laden system of mass detention,” said Sarah Gardiner, Policy Director at Freedom for Immigrants.

Over 100 men detained at Etowah pen letter demanding the visitation program be restored

Media Contact: rentralgo@freedomforimmigrants.org

Freedom for Immigrants today filed a lawsuit in federal court against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over retaliatory attacks on its hotline. The hotline, however, is far from the only FFI resource provided to immigrants in detention that is currently suspended by ICE. The lawsuit details a pattern of retaliation, specifically calling out the current suspension of the Etowah Visitation Project at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama.

Freedom for Immigrants Seeks to Declare ICE’s Actions Unconstitutional and Reinstate Its National Immigration Detention Hotline

Los Angeles, CA – December 10, 2019 – Today, Freedom for Immigrants (“FFI”) filed a federal lawsuit to reinstate its National Immigration Detention Hotline (the “Hotline”). As the complaint and corresponding motion for preliminary injunction detail, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) shut down the Hotline in retaliation for FFI’s exercise of First Amendment rights advocating on behalf of persons in immigration detention.

ICE Retaliates Against Immigrant Rights Advocates by Suspending Visitation Program at Etowah Detention Center, Advocates Demand the Program Be Reinstated Ahead of the Holidays

Gadsden, AL — In retaliation of a group of volunteer visits that was followed by a rally outside of the Etowah Detention Center in November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office have suspended the Etowah Visitation Project. On behalf of the Etowah Visitation Project, Freedom for Immigrants issued a cease and desist letter today to ICE and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office.

ICE Is Circumventing CA State Law on Private Prison Abolition

The California Congressional delegation submitted a four-page letter to the acting heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thursday, demanding transparency over its recent bids for four private prison facilities in the state. This recent attempt by ICE to expand immigration detention in California is in direct opposition of AB 32, a bill which would phase out the use of private, for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers beginning Jan. 1, 2020. ICE posted the first solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities website on Oct. 16,  just five days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. 

Families of People Detained at Richwood, Site of Recent Death, Protest Detention and Use of Force

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Dozens of local activists, members of faith-based groups, attorneys, and loved ones of Cuban asylum seekers in detention staged a protest in front of the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana this weekend. The group gathered to draw attention to the indefinite and abusive detention of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and the alleged retaliation they face in detention for speaking out. According to firsthand accounts from two men detained and their families, on Oct. 16th a hunger strike of around 40 men protesting the death of another Cuban detainee and their own conditions and mistreatment was met with excessive force.