We recently received this request from the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute Justice Team to write letters to our Senators, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, thanking them for urging the Obama Administration to close immigrant family detention centers. These centers, which are in fact jails in which mothers and children of all ages are held, are unnecessary, cruel and expensive, and some of us working for immigrants rights are demanding that they be closed. There are other, much less costly and inhumane, ways of keeping track of these desperate families who are fleeing violence in their home countries.
Here in Bergen County, CoFiA is aware of a mother and young child who were allowed to come to Palisades Park. She must wear an ankle bracelet and report to ICE in Newark every other week, which is difficult and costly. But much better than being kept in a jail.
You can write to the senators at: Senator Cory A. Booker, U.S. Senate, 359 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510-3003; Senator Robert Menendez, 528 Hart Senate Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20510. Or email www.booker.senate.gov or www.menendez.senate.gov.
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Dear Mercy Advocates:
Last week, 12 Mercy sisters, associates and co-workers spent some time at the U.S.-Mexico border and learned about our broken immigration system and those caught up in a detention system primarily run by for-private corporations. Some of us also participated in rallies during theSOA Watch Convergence at the Border calling for an end to mass deportation and for a change in U.S. foreign, military and trade policies that are creating the conditions from which migrants are fleeing.
You have an opportunity to stand in solidarity with these Mercys and with migrants most impacted by U.S. policies by sending a thank-you to senators who signed a recent letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. They urged him to end the policy of family detention and recognize that women and children fleeing horrific violence and poverty are no security threat to our country and that detention causes harm to children’s mental and emotional development.
Thank you for taking action on this important issue,
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas’ Institute Justice Team
Thanks for Urging Closing of Family Detention Centers
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