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We need your immediate action, John.
Too many people — including children and parents — came to the U.S. seeking safety from violence and persecution, only to be thrown behind bars in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, they are at risk of being exposed to COVID-19 in crowded conditions with inadequate hygiene and negligent medical care.
Families we’ve written to you about like Ana* and her 4-year-old daughter Victoria* wait in uncertainty in detention, despite increasing health complications. They are just two of the faces of ICE’s cruelty and total disregard for the health and wellbeing of families and all people in immigration detention during this pandemic.
The continued detention of immigrants and asylum-seekers in the U.S. during a deadly pandemic is a human rights crisis. Since March, there have been nearly 2,000 individuals detained across the country who protested in COVID-19-related hunger strikes calling for the release of immigrants.
URGENT: Add your name to tell ICE to free immigrants and asylum-seekers — including all families together — from ICE detention and protect them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Children and adults in detention face grave risks — including illness and even death — if exposed to COVID-19 in immigration detention facilities. Amnesty International teams have received credible and very disturbing accounts from people detained in dangerous conditions in these facilities. Public health experts predict that, unless ICE drastically reduces the numbers of detained immigrants in its care, anywhere from 72 percent to nearly 100 percent of detainees could contract COVID-19, endangering detainees and overwhelming hospital capacity.
Detained immigrants and asylum-seekers must be immediately released! They have communities waiting to welcome them, and homes to return to. Detaining large numbers of people during the pandemic not only places those detained and staff at severe risk but also presents a risk to public health.
This is an outrage. Please add your name to help advocate for families like Ana and Victoria and all people needlessly locked up in immigration detention. Take immediate action right now.
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