ACLU Supporter, Congress is poised to vote this week on a bill that would drastically increase criminal penalties against people – simply because of how they entered the U.S. This bill must be stopped.

It's telling that this is the first bill being considered as Congress returns from their August recess. The Trump administration has spent the past year obsessively vilifying, deporting, and incarcerating as many immigrants as possible without concern for due process or the communities and families being ripped apart.

This bill would supercharge those efforts. It would impose extreme prison sentences on people seeking asylum, teenagers, and people trying to reunite with their families, even authorizing life sentences. It would divert resources from legitimate emergencies and lead to an expansion in our failed federal prison system.

That's why we're calling on Congress to reject this bill immediately and block this expansion of President Trump's mass detention program. With the vote coming as soon as this week, send your representatives a message now.

This bill, H.R. 3486, poses a threat to us all. It increases mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenses like unauthorized entry into the U.S. It fuels mass incarceration and the racial disparities in our legal system, funneling primarily people of color into private prisons with new extreme sentences. And by taking away resources from emergencies and actual public safety measures, it leaves us all less safe.

The Trump administration's attacks on our communities and immigrant family members must be stopped. But this bill is racing through Congress right now with bipartisan support – so it'll take all of us to block it.

Immigrants deserve dignity, not detention. Urge Congress to vote no on this racist and extreme bill.

Thanks for all you do,

Sarah Mehta
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Deputy Director of Policy and Government Affairs
ACLU Equality Division