Under President Obama, annual deportations peaked around 400,000, without today’s expanded detention cruelty. Under Trump, deportations averaged 250,000, yet detention expanded, adding costly payments for unnecessary and often unconstitutional punishment in awful conditions. DHS data show most detained people are noncriminal. Government Accountability Office reports confirm family-based oversight achieves compliance. Yet many, including parents of citizen children, are denied court access, creating family separations and trauma. Even if one supports strict enforcement, detention can exceed $150 per day per person, far higher than monitoring. People are moved across states, denied due process and deported without their day in court. Under Obama, deportations followed legal proceedings; under Trump, denial of court access has soared.
“Alternatives to detention,” or ATDs, have been promoted by the federal government as a “humane” approach to immigration enforcement, but ankle monitors and other forms of surveillance can have devastating consequences. Immigrants and people born in the U.S. benefit when people are free to navigate their immigration cases within their communities and have access to supportive services without harmful and costly detention or expanded surveillance systems.
Thousands of children are in detention right now, including 2,400 unaccompanied minors and hundreds detained with family members. How does anyone support jailing a child? Please call your congressional representatives and demand that constitutional rights be restored and an end put to secret police and concentration camps. Too many people have died in detention because of poor conditions, including an 11-year-old child. Please help.
Liza Tregillus
Durango
