ICIJ statement on Title 42

May 18, 2023

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice strongly condemns the unlawful and unjust criminalization of migrants at the border by CBP, DHS, and the Biden Administration. Since Title 42 expired last week, we have witnessed the inhumane treatment of migrants from a severe lack of medical attention to holding them in open-air detention, leaving migrants unprotected from the weather and environmental conditions. This is not how a country that respects international migration law acts so must insist the Biden Administration ends this cruel and undignified treatment of migrants immediately. We remind the Biden Administration that holding centers and any form of detention center are not solutions to migration but rather tools of repression with a riddled history of human rights violations. 

There is a better way, there always has been a better way. 

Instead of sending 1,500 soldiers to the border, we could send 1,500 lawyers, organizers, healthcare workers, and church leaders. Instead of meeting asylum seekers with cruelty, we can meet them with empathy and dignified care that every human being deserves. The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice calls on our Inland Empire congressional representatives to join us in standing with human rights and our immigrant community and urge the Biden Administration to end their abhorrent treatment of migrants at the border.

Sincerely,  

Javier Hernandez, Executive Director 

Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice