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For Immediate Release //
February 25th 2021
Contact: 951-966-6500, media@ic4ij.org
IC4IJ Joins National Campaign to Shut Down ICE Detention Facilities
San Bernardino, CA – The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice proudly joins the “First Ten to Communities Not Cages” campaign led by Detention Watch Network, demanding the shut down of 10 immigration detention facilities in the first year of the Biden administration. As a convener of the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition, IC4IJ sees the need to amplify grassroots efforts and join in solidarity with the national fight to end and abolish immigrant detention facilities.
The “First Ten” is part of a larger effort of the Communities Not Cages Campaign to shut down Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention centers, and stop the expansion and construction of new facilities.
Lizbeth Abeln, Deportation Defense-Programs Manager of Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said:
“This pandemic has confirmed what we’ve been saying for years, ICE is an agency designed to terrorize immigrant communities and no one is safe in ICE jails. When people like Jose Tapete have spoken, ICE has retaliated harshly by using harmful chemicals, pepper spray, and rubber bullets against them. Their heinous actions against immigrant detainees are degrading and demonstrate purposeful intent to cause harm. This facility needs to be shut down, no more excuses.“
Rep. Mark Takano, representing California’s 41st district, said:
“ICE detention facilities in Adelanto and across the country have consistently operated in ways that contradict our nation’s immigrant values, it’s time to shut them down. I’ve visited Adelanto and I’ve witnessed the way immigrants in detention are being treated in these facilities… As a nation, we must stand up for human rights and in defense of immigrants who come to this country seeking a better life. I commend the Biden Administration for taking action to end the federal use of for-profit prisons, and I urge him to do the same for immigration detention centers. The GEO Group, which runs Adelanto and other facilities across the country, profits from the unjust treatment of detainees and our broken immigration system. That’s why I support the ‘First Ten’ campaign in calling for the shutdown of the Adelanto ICE Detention Center, and I’ll gladly join calls to shut down more detention centers nationwide. Families and asylum-seekers do not belong in detention and children do not belong in cages – our immigration system must be humane.”
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