From the #ShutDownBerks Coalition (https://www.facebook.com/ShutDownBerksCoalition/):
In a statewide effort led by State Representative Manny Guzman, D-Berks, fifty-two Pennsylvania elected leaders on the local and state level drafted a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris urging the termination of the federal ICE contract at the Berks County Detention Center. The letter was hand delivered to Biden staff by coalition member Make the Road Pennsylvania’s Director, Maegan Llerena.
“Our years-long fight to Shut Down Berks reached the top of our government today, when I spoke to the President and delivered a letter from more than 50 elected officials supporting the Berks community’s call to end incarceration in our backyard, and replace the Berks Detention Center with something that truly serves local residents. I was glad that President Biden committed to reading the letter, and said he’d continue to urge Congressional leadership to pass a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented Americans. Now, we are asking President Biden to put action behind his words, by closing the Berks Detention Center and ending the contract with ICE, so this facility can finally benefit our community instead of harm it,”said Maegan Llerena.
It’s been five months since the last set of previously detained families were freed to their loved ones and sponsors. The facility should permanently end the egregious practice of family detention once and for all.
“This is the first time in many years that the Berks County Residential Center has stood without detained immigrant families within its walls. We believe that this decision is only the first step towards ending family detention once and for all in this country. Incarcerating immigrants – whether they be families, children, or individual adults – is cruel, inhumane, abusive, unnecessary and immoral. It is a violation not only of American civil liberties but also of international human rights”, Representative Guzman said.
The letter, signed by a broad coalition of State Senators, State Representatives, and municipal elected leaders, stands against new plans to detain, process, incarcerate, or subject any immigrant to federal actions within the facility.
“Ending this archaic contract with ICE, coupled with the underlying goal of repurposing the facility for community benefit, will have positive ripple effects for future generations in Berks county and beyond”, Guzman said.
The Shut Down Berks Coalition applauds the leadership from municipal and state elected officials and echoes the demand to President Biden, Vice President Harris and DHS Secretary Mayorkas. Families have the right to be free and ending the family detention system is a first step toward dismantling a harmful and abusive immigration enforcement machine.
In April of 2021, Lorena, a mother detained for more than 700 days in the Berks family prison with her three-year-old son, joined the Shut Down Berks Coalition to share her message to President Biden.
“You don’t have the freedom that you desire, you are always in custody… So, I ask the President with all respect to please put a stop to detention at Berks. And that you should not lock someone up regardless of their origin, their race, their color, their religion. It causes great harm to the families; I say this from personal experience. I was there for more than a year, almost two [years].
My wish is that we could use the building for good works, not as a jail. Because it is true that we came with trauma from our own country only to end up in another place with more trauma. My wish, with all my heart, is that the center be closed and that not one [more] family, not one [more] child, is there because it is difficult to be there.”
#EndFamilyDetention #FreeThemAll #FreedomForFamilies
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