Freedom for Immigrants and Detention Watch Network delivered a letter to the Biden-Harris administration signed by over 200 organizations calling for the immediate release of people in ICE custody amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We also are calling on the administration and Congress to enact necessary moratoriums on all immigration enforcement actions, deportations, and transfers between jails, detention centers and prisons.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s immigration proposal is a significant departure from the hateful attacks of the outgoing administration, but any comprehensive plan to overhaul our immigration system must include the phasing out of all immigration detention facilities,” said Christina Fialho, co-founder/executive director.
At a time when Americans are desperate for relief from the social and economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress is expected to vote tonight for a federal funding bill that shamefully fails to meet the needs of the communities and families who have suffered the most, and instead pours $23 billion into the Department of Homeland Security’s immigrant detention and deportation system.
HACKENSACK, NJ -- In response to police violence against advocates and community members outside the Bergen County Jail, the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition and allies issued the following statement:
“While police in Bergen County spent the majority of their Saturday afternoon and evening responding to peaceful protests with violence, we cannot and must not lose sight of the fact that people detained at the Bergen County Jail are nearly one month into a hunger strike. They are subjected daily to the violence of a brutal detention system and retaliation by ICE and the Bergen County Sheriff.
HACKENSACK, NJ — As six people detained at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey reach nearly a month on a hunger strike for freedom, two are slated to be transferred to Batavia Federal Detention Facility, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility near Buffalo, New York, according to community advocates and attorneys. One of the hunger strikers set to be transferred has resisted food for 26 days and has lost over 40 pounds.
Washington, D.C. - As Congress negotiates budget funding, Defund Hate coalition members call on Congress to avoid the mistake of continuing to fund the Department of Homeland Security's cruel and inhumane immigration system. Over the years, the department and its two deportation arms —Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)— have wasted billions of dollars jailing, abusing and deporting Black and brown immigrants with zero regard for their safety, humanity and well-being.
HACKENSACK, NJ -- Today from 1-4 p.m. community members and activists will gather outside the Bergen County Jail in solidarity with the nine men who began a hunger strike on November 13th, to demand their release.
This is the 6th consecutive day of protests but the 19th day of the hunger strike. The Abolish ICE NY/NJ Coalition along with on the ground organizers of the daily protests are now calling on Governor Murphy and Attorney General Grewal to intervene on behalf of the people on hunger strike, the people in ICE detention, and everyone at the facility.
NEW JERSEY — Despite unrelenting opposition from former detainees, directly impacted individuals, immigration attorneys, elected officials, faith leaders, medical doctors and community advocates, Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders decided to renew the county’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a 6-3 vote, late Tuesday night. Public testimony, all of which were in opposition, lasted over 9 hours in what ended as a 12 hour meeting, making it the longest government meeting in New Jersey history. According to the renewed contract, ICE is able to detain immigrants at the Hudson County Correctional Facility for the next ten years.
