As a result of the huge budget cuts Congress made to life-saving programs like Medicaid and SNAP in its budget reconciliation bill this summer, millions of Americans are losing access to healthcare and nutrition assistance.
Meanwhile, tens of billions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). With this funding, they are terrorizing communities and targeting and arresting families.
Many of these families are then sent to an immigration detention facility in rural Texas known as Dilley, where conditions are shocking. People with chronic health conditions or medical emergencies are being denied the care they need, infants are experiencing alarming weight loss, and families are denied access to adequate clean drinking water, forced in many cases to drink tap water at the facility that is foul-smelling and known to cause upset stomachs.
Alarmingly, many families are held in these prison-like conditions without due process for weeks on end, and many families are separated from each other while they are detained.
After being ripped away from their schools, neighborhoods, homes, friends, toys, and familiar routines, children detained in Texas frequently aren’t even being allowed access to crayons. Compared to the serious human rights abuses families in detention are experiencing, this detail may seem small, but it demonstrates the cruelty with which ICE is denying children the experiences of joy, creativity, and play that every child deserves.
Detaining families has nothing to do with creating a safe, orderly, fair immigration system or advancing national security.
Family detention—like all immigration detention—is always inhumane. Detention inflicts profound harm on both children and adults that continues long after they are released, but it is especially traumatizing for children.
Use the tool below to call your members of Congress now and ask them to demand an end to family detention.
As long as these facilities remain open, our elected leaders must use their oversight power to enforce existing laws and hold ICE accountable for upholding due process and maintaining safe and sanitary conditions. Tell your members of Congress to immediately ensure the health and safety of all families in detention by demanding due process, clean drinking water, hygienic conditions, access to healthcare, and educational opportunities for children.