On Friday, March 26th, 2021, Berks County community members and Shut Down Berks Coalition member, Make the Road Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against the Berks County Commissioners Christian Leinbach, Kevin Barnhardt and Michael Rivera. The lawsuit cites the “deliberate effort by the Berks County Commissioners to hide their decision-making surrounding the Berks County family prison from the public.”
For the last several weeks, the Berks County commissioners have been in communication with ICE to convert the use of the facility into an immigrant women’s prison. But they have refused to make public the details of those conversations with county residents, including hiding the details of a white paper proposal submitted by ICE to the commissioners. Community members assert that it is unacceptable that the County Commissioners have failed to provide a process for community input regarding use of the facility.
The Shut Down Berks Coalition stands firmly with community members who demand transparency from their local elected officials. We also reiterate that, until this prison is permanently shut down and until ICE and the Department of Homeland Security stops using this facility, the fight is not over.
The Berks County community has made their demands clear time and time again. They want and deserve real human services that support and care for, not criminalize, people. This facility should not sit and remain vacant; instead, it should be repurposed for community programming that will improve the lives of those who call the county or the state their home. However, the re-purposing of the center should move forward democratically in collaboration with community members.
TAKE ACTION NOW
We won’t stop fighting until we permanently #ShutDownBerks and #EndFamilyDetention nationwide for good. Tell the Biden administration that they shut down the Berks, Karnes and Dilley family prisons NOW. #CommunitiesNotCages
Call: And leave a message for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas 202-282-8495
E-mail: White House: www.whitehouse.gov/contact & alejandro.mayorkas@dhs.gov
Twitter: @POTUS @VP @AliMayorkas
Facebook: @POTUS @VP
Instagram: @POTUS @VicePresident
Sample language: I am writing to say that the Berks County, Karnes and Dilley Detention Centers should no longer be utilized by ICE, whether it be for families, children, individual women, or individual men. No one should be detained at these facilities for any length of time. Regardless of what name you use, it is clear that as long as ICE is using it, it will still be detention and it will be abusive.
Years and years of documented abuse have occurred for those under the custody of ICE. Dozens of people, including children, have died in their custody. They never have and never will be equipped to respect human dignity, and we will never trust their false promises. Our communities should not be in cages, and DHS must end their contracts with these facilities permanently.
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