The undersigned 233 organizations call on the Biden administration to live up to its promise of creating a more humane immigration system by ensuring asylum seekers and other migrants are not placed behind bars in immigration detention as Title 42 is lifted.
Our organizations welcome the overdue end of the unlawful and cruel Title 42 expulsion policy. As Title 42 ends, the government can heed lessons from other nations; the international community has for years managed to humanely and fairly receive people forced to flee their homes due to crises and conflict. Many nations have responded to this challenge with community-based services and support programs—not by expanding the use of detention. The United States must show moral leadership and join these nations, rather than those that seek to punish and stigmatize the most vulnerable among us through detention and surveillance.
Mass detention of immigrants and asylum seekers places the United States further at odds with international norms and treaty obligations. Detention places people in conditions known to cause mental and physical harm and endanger their lives. Detention is not a deterrent to migrants who have no choice but to flee dangerous or violent conditions in search of a better life. It is also unnecessary in ensuring future appearance, as non-detained asylum seekers and immigrants overwhelmingly appear for their court hearings.
ICE currently detains approximately 25,500 people per day in county jails, for-profit prisons, and federal facilities across the country, costing taxpayers $2.9 billion in 2023. The system is riddled with abusive conditions, including: medical abuse and negligent mental health care; lack of access to basic necessities; sexual and physical assault; frequent use of solitary confinement; and retaliation for reporting abuse. These abuses are endemic to the system; oversight mechanisms have proven ineffective in remedying them. Detention also separates immigrants from their children, spouses, and loved ones, inflicting long-lasting trauma in immigrant communities.
The American public overwhelmingly believes that people seeking safety in the United States should be able to fairly access asylum. The cruelty and harms of detention should have no part in that. Whether they are green card holders, refugees, asylees, or asylum seekers, immigrants are
integral and vibrant members of our community. Detention is not an effective or humane response to people seeking safety at the border and it must not be expanded.
Our organizations are in solidarity with immigrant communities and asylum seekers, and urge the Biden administration to abandon policies that undermine their dignity, livelihoods, and human rights. The administration can instead utilize options such as parole, issue work permits, and invest resources in local communities providing shelter and support to migrants while they navigate their immigration cases.
We call on the Biden administration to make good on its commitments to never detain families, to end privatized immigration detention, and ensure that people seeking safety can pursue their cases while living in communities in the United States rather than being subjected to inhumane detention and surveillance.
Signed:
National Organizations
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Immigration Council
Amnesty International USA
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Detention Watch Network
Freedom for Immigrants
Human Rights First
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
National Immigrant Justice Center
National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
Women’s Refugee Commission
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
#WelcomeWithDignity Campaign
Abortion Access Front
Acacia Center for Justice
African Communities Together
African Human Rights Coalition
African Immigration Initiative
Alianza Americas
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Americans for Immigrant Justice
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Border Kindness
Boston University School of Law, Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program
CASA
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Center for Victims of Torture
Child Labor Coalition
Children's Defense Fund
Church World Service
Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center
Coalition on Human Needs
Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP)
Community Change Action
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Council for Global Equality
Disability Rights Advocates
Drug Policy Alliance
Fair and Just Prosecution
Freedom Network USA
Government Accountability Project
Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights (GRR!)
Haitian Bridge Alliance
Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Watch
Immigrant Families Together
Immigration Hub
Immigrant Justice Network
Immigration Equality
Immigration Law & Justice Network
Indivisible
Innovation Law Lab
InReach
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)
Ipas
Japanese American Citizens League
Justice Action Center
Justice for Migrant Women
Justice in Motion
Justice Strategies
Latin America Working Group
Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Marianist Social Justice Immigration team
MoveOn
MPower Change
Muslim Advocates
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
National Council of Churches
National Council of Jewish Women
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Immigration Law Center
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
National Lawyers’ Guild- SF Bay Area chapter
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
National Partnership for New Americans
National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic
Oasis Legal Services
Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity/Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
Oxfam America
Physicians for Human Rights
Poder Latinx
Poligon Education Fund
Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
Presente.org
Project ANAR
Quixote Center
RAICES
Refugee Congress
Refugees International
Respond Crisis Translation
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Society of the flora, fauna & friend
Sojourners
Southern Border Communities Coalition
StoptheDrugWar.org
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Tahirih Justice Center
The Education Trust
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The TransLatin@ Coalition
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic
UltraViolet Action
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
United We Dream
Value our Families
Vera Institute of Justice
We Are All America
Win Without War
Witness At The Border
Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights
Regional & Local Organizations
Advocates for Basic Legal Equality
AIDS Alabama
Al Otro Lado
Alianza, Sacramento
American Gateways
Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders for Equity
Black and Brown United in Action
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ)
California Immigrant Policy Center
Carolina Migrant Network
Casa Mariposa Detention Visitation Program
Central American Minors (CAM) Working Group
Central American Resource Center of Northern CA - CARECEN SF
Central Washington Justice for Our Neighbors
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos: United Workers' Center
Centro Legal de la Raza
Chicana Latina Foundation
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Community EsTr(El/La)
Congregation Action Network
Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible
Corazón Az
Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services Inc
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington DC
DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving
El Refugio
Envision Freedom Fund
Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project
Faith in New Jersey
Faith in New York
Families for Freedom
Fellowship Southwest
First Friends of New Jersey & New York
FL National Organization for Women
Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project
Florida Immigrant Coalition
Georgia Immigration Collaborative
Greater Orlando National Organization for Women
Guadalupe Presbyterian Church, USA-Az
Hartford Deportation Defense
Home is Here NOLA
Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative
Houston Leads
Human Rights Initiative
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Immigrant Action Alliance
Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project
Immigration Counseling Service (ICS)
Immigration Law & Justice of the Delaware Valley
Indivisible Brooklyn
Indivisible Marin
Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America
Interfaith Welcome Coalition - San Antonio
Japanese American Citizens League Philadelphia Chapter
Just Neighbors
Justice for Our Neighbors Michigan
Justice For Our Neighbors North Central Texas
La Resistencia
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Latino Community Fund (LCF Georgia)
Legal Aid Justice Center
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA)
Mariposa Legal
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center
Midwest Immigration Bond Fund
Migrant Center for Human Rights
Migrant Equity Southeast
Minnesota Freedom Fund
Mobile Pathways
Never Again Action Boston
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Pax Christi New York State
Pax Christi Pacific Northwest
ProgressNow New Mexico
Public Law Center
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network
SA Stands
Sanctuary and Resistance to Injustice (SARI)
South Bay People Power
South Dakota Pax Christi
Southern Poverty Law Center
STRANGERS NO LONGER (Michigan)
Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
Texas Civil Rights Project
The Advocates for Human Rights
the devi co-op
The Porchlight Collective SAP
Transformations CDC
Unidad Latina en Accion NJ
UnLocal
Voces Unidas (RGV)
Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Washington Defender Association
Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Westchester Jewish Coalition for Immigration
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
Woori Juntos
Workers Defense Project