From One America (http://weareoneamerica.org/):
When OneAmerica member Elizabeth first entered the Tacoma Detention Center in 2009, her heart sank. She saw an overcrowded, dirty cell filled with scared immigrants just like her – mothers, daughters, sisters and brothers. She felt outraged that a private company, the GEO Group, was profiting from their suffering.
“It was very crowded and very dirty,” she said of her conditions in detention. “I felt like we were being treated like livestock. The guards used any opportunity to shout at and curse us.” Elizabeth described being forced to do manual labor at the detention center for $1/day and constantly fearing being placed in solitary confinement for arbitrary reasons.
We know this isn’t right. And today, we have the opportunity to fight for justice for Elizabeth and the tens of thousands of immigrants currently incarcerated in immigrant detention centers.
Act now and tell your representatives to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act (http://cqrcengage.com/oneamericavotes/app/onestep-write-a-letter?0&engagementId=410293)!
Sponsored by Representatives Pramilia Jayapal and Adam Smith, the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act (HR 3923)would end the use of for-profit immigration detention centers, stop arbitrary detention quotas and provide much-needed accountability to a detention system that has routinely been accused of terrorizing and brutalizing detainees.
Elizabeth saw some of that behavior firsthand.
“One particular lady was from Canada,” Elizabeth said. “She went to the guard and told the guard, ‘I’m from Canada, I’ve been here for months, please just deport me. I can’t stay here anymore.’ She was put in solitary confinement. She stayed in a small cell, and she had to be taken to a shower in chains. That made us terrified to say anything. We knew we’d receive the same treatment.”
Stories like Elizabeth’s are why we need the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act. No one should go through what Elizabeth did, but every day, tens of thousands of immigrants do.
Please join us in calling on our representatives to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, and help ensure that our immigration detention centers are accountable, and that no one profits from the suffering of our communities.
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