From Moms Rising (https://www.momsrising.org/):
As the world continues to respond to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, many families are staying home with their children, caring for them with the hopes that they will stay healthy and safe together. Yet right now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is forcing immigrant families in detention centers to face the perils of both separation AND exposure to this deadly disease. [1]
**This is why we need YOU to take one very important action today: Call on Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to shut down the Berks County Family Detention Center. Text “NoBerks” to 747464 and we’ll connect you directly to Gov. Wolf’s office.
What’s happening?
In late June, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that all children detained for more than 20 days at ICE Family Residential Centers (FRCs) must be released no later than July 17, 2020. This is in accordance with the Flores Settlement Agreement, which only covers children – not their parents or caregivers. The order to release the children by July 17 came after plaintiffs in a long-running case reported that some children in detention have tested positive for the virus. [2] However, Judge Gee only had jurisdiction over the children, not their parents. Another federal judge just ruled that ICE does not need to release parents detained in their family jails with their children. [3] This means that ICE can now force parents, as they did in May according to NBC news reports, to make an impossible choice: waive your children’s rights so they can be released from a dangerous jail, or choose to remain in custody together. [4]
No mother or father should ever be forced to make this choice! Now more than ever, as the detained families are at acute risk from COVID-19, join our action to demand that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf issue an Emergency Removal Order and SHUT DOWN BERKS!
—> Text “NoBerks” to 747464 and we’ll connect you directly to Gov. Wolf’s office to tell him to shut down the Berks County Family Detention Center immediately.
Children and parents come to our country seeking safety from violence and persecution, instead, they are thrown behind bars, often in crowded conditions with inadequate hygiene and negligent medical care in the face of COVID-19. More than 2,500 adult immigrants have tested positive for the coronavirus while in ICE custody, according to the agency’s latest tally. There is absolutely no reason for children and families to be facing this risk as relatives and community sponsors are ready to receive them.
***Take a few quick minutes now to call Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and tell him to shut down Berks and stand against separating families during a global pandemic. We make it super easy for you → Just text “NoBerks” to 747464 and we’ll connect you directly with Gov. Wolf’s office.
peaking out today, when so many others around the country are doing the same, will send a powerful message that family separation and incarceration of children and parents is cruel and unjust. With the very real threat of COVID-19 and the challenges of managing an outbreak in the center’s closed quarters, it’s more urgent that Gov. Wolf shuts this center down.
Why target Gov. Wolf? While ICE so far is resisting pressure to release children and families together, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf has the legal authority now to shut down Berks County Family Detention Center, one of three immigrant family detention centers in the U.S. [5]
To prevent children and families from being separated or facing the risks of COVID in detention, Gov. Wolf must instruct DHS to issue an Emergency Removal Order for the Berks County Family Detention Center and shut it down.
The continued operation of this prison is both damaging and destructive to our country and there is no excuse for it to operate while children and families suffer within.
After you make your phone calls, please forward this email to 5 friends and ask them to call as well so you can double down on your impact! We need as many people as possible speaking out to make sure our elected leaders know families must be kept together – free, healthy, and safe.
Thank you so much for continuing to stand up for all of our families during this difficult time!
P.S. Want to take further action on immigration? Tell Congress to include immigrants for COVID-19 relief by clicking here!
REFERENCES:
[1], [2] “U.S. Must Release Children From Family Detention Centers, Judge Rules,” Miriam Jordan, New York Times, June 26, 2020.
[3] “Judge rejects plea to release immigrant families in detention due to Covid-19”
[4] “Faced with choice, migrant parents in ICE detention refuse to separate from children”
[5] “RE: Pennsylvania Emergency Removal Order Authority“
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