TO DO: Immigration/Detention
Source: Detention Watch Network
https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:1409617.13063633998/rid:00fb82e0a720d78ca16a3c2508b97934
In the
Wake of Tragedy at Arizona's Eloy Detention Center, Detention Watch Network
Urges Congress to Repeal Mandatory Detention
Detention Watch Network
mourns the loss of Elsa Guadalupe-Gonzales and Jorge Garcia-Mejia, immigrants
who committed suicide last week at the Corrections Corporation of America
operated Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. In the aftermath of this tragedy,
the organization and its members are calling for Congress to repeal mandatory
detention of immigrants through immigration reform and cut ties between the
federal government and the private prison industry.
“These tragedies point to
long-standing concerns reported by people detained at the Eloy facility,
including inadequate medical and mental health care and punitive conditions,”
said Alessandra Soler, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) of Arizona. “Although ICE touts its detention reforms, people detained
in Arizona continue to experience dangerous conditions that jeopardize their
safety and well-being. ICE must make their review of these tragedies public and
include a determination as to whether it was necessary for either of these
individuals to have been in custody to begin with,” added Soler.
The Eloy Detention Center
currently operates under 2008 detention standards, has no independent
oversight, passed its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspection
despite having nine other known immigrant fatalities since 2004, and is part of
a billion-dollar private prison industry, which houses 50 percent of those in
immigration detention. Prison corporations like Corrections Corporation of
America lobby heavily to secure these government contracts to increase their
profits.
“The tragic deaths at the
Eloy Detention Center are a glaring example of the continuing problems that
plague our country’s immigration detention system,” said Andrea Black,
Executive Director at Detention Watch Network. "Leaving outdated mandatory
detention laws and practices in place comes with an immense moral and economic
price tag. Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake have the power to heed the
call to do better and enact real change by moving to repeal mandatory detention
in the comprehensive immigration reform plan the Senate has put forward.”
Detention Watch Network is
also calling on Senators McCain and Flake to exercise their authority and
demand that ICE immediately terminate its contract with Corrections Corporation
of America's Eloy Detention Center and release immigrants in these facilities
and return them to their families and communities. Click here for the action alert.
[FOR ACTION ALERT, GO
TO: https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:1409617.13063633998/rid:00fb82e0a720d78ca16a3c2508b97934
The
Detention Watch Network works through the collective strength and diversity of
its members to expose and challenge the injustices of the U.S. immigration
detention and deportation system and advocate for profound change that promotes
the rights and dignity of all persons.
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