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With a new immigration bill, we must not forget the lives that continue to be caged under the Biden administration.

For Immediate Release //
February 19th, 2021
Contact: 951-966-6500, media@ic4ij.org

San Bernardino, CA -The Biden-Harris administration made a commitment to immigrants across the country that have been targeted, criminalized, and caged in for-profit centers. This commitment was to create a path for roughly 11 million immigrants to gain legal status and address key issues such as the family immigration system, DACA, and TPS. Unfortunately, as is often the case – Democrats attempt to undermine progress by adding unnecessary enforcement that enhances an already militarized border and feeds into narratives that further criminalize immigrants.

Javier Hernandez, Director of IC4IJ Issued the following statement: 

“While this bill is a positive step forward that shifts away from the troublesome Obama administration and the violent Trump administration, we must reject efforts that criminalize our communities and fund dangerous border security only meant to appease right-wing anti-immigrants.

We must not forget that under the same administration there are still thousands of immigrants in cages, suffering, and being treated inhumanely. This bill does not include the abolition of for-profit immigration detention centers and does nothing to hold ICE and GEO accountable for the continuous abuses and actions that continue to risk the lives of our immigrant communities.”

The Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, released the 2nd report on detention centers in California. This report further confirms the horrors that immigrants face within ICE detention facilities. The report details the medical neglect, abuse, and torture happening in ICE detention facilities. Yet neither the Attorney General nor this administration has taken a step forward to abolish these for-profit facilities. While this bill is dismantling the previous measures taken by the Obama-Biden and Trump administration, we must push for the release of all immigrants currently in detention centers.

We must continue to push for the freedom of all immigrants in detention centers and demand accountability from ICE and GEO. These abuses have been going on for years, while we celebrate this first step towards a more progressive immigration climate, we need to fight for those who have been kept in cages. We will continue to fight until all immigrants are released and our communities feel safe.

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