Keeping families together by keeping them in jail is not the answer to the humanitarian crisis at our border.
Trump’s new executive order on the family separation policy:
- Doesn’t re-unite families already separated.
- Seeks indefinite detention of refugee families, by ordering the Attorney General to challenge the Flores settlement.
- Sets up family detention at military bases.
Meanwhile:
- The drastic new restrictions on the criteria for who can claim asylum are left in place. The impact of these new rules will fall heaviest on women and children fleeing violence and abuse.
- The new practice of blocking asylum seekers at legal ports of entry continues.
- The culture of abuse and mistreatment in immigration detention is unchecked.
- A series of less publicized executive orders has stripped legal protections for children in the immigration system, limiting access to a fair judicial process.
- The root causes of the violence and economic instability that force refugees to flee their homes are left unaddressed.
Alternatives to Family Detention
More humane alternatives to detention exist. The Family Case Management Program, which the Trump administration terminated last year, had a compliance rate of 99.6% with immigration requirements such as court hearings.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement Must Not Be Used As an Arm of Law Enforcement
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), ICE, and CBP began cooperating more closely in May 2108 under a new Memorandum of Agreement. ORR can now share information gained by social workers and health care providers with ICE, and this information can be used against children in court.
Under this new agreement, a slow motion family separation crisis will continue. The new agreement also increases the likelihood that ICE will deport undocumented relatives of children in detention if they step forward as sponsors. In vetting sponsors, the best interests of the child should take precedence over immigration enforcement.
What you can do:
- Join us on June 30 at 10am in Santa Cruz and 2pm in Watsonville for a Families Belong Together rally. At hundreds of events around the country, we will continue to increase our pressure for justice. Free Our Future!
- Volunteer with Sanctuary Santa Cruz
- Advocate – Call Congress (202) 224-3121 and tell your representative to:
- Reject any mmigration bill which pours money into abusive, unaccountable agencies and further militarizes our border.
- Pass legislation to require alternatives to detention for asylum seekers & end the May Memorandum of Agreement between ICE and ORR.
- As we enter the mid-term election season, support candidates who will work for the long-term goal of decriminalizing human migration.
- Donate
- to our fundraiser for Al Otro Lado, a 501c3 nonprofit organization which helps both refugees and and recent deportees on both sides of the US-Mexico border. They are experienced at cross-border custody issues facing low-income migrant families. Please help with your donation!
- to more than 12 organizations helping families at the border through Act Blue
- to Sanctuary Santa Cruz to support our work in the community
- to Puebla Sin Fronteras’ Family Reunification Phone Project
- to the Raices Family Reunification Bond Fund