We won't pay for family separation, detention, and ICE

A crowd protests unfair detention center practices, with a news camera and police car nearby.

Congress is now considering billions of dollars of increased funding for immigration detention, deportation, and criminalization of immigrants and we have the power to stop it. We are halfway through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's Faith Week of Action, and we continue to resist any funding increases for family separation, immigration detention, and ICE.

We see the force of our power when we come together. Every day we see you offering housing, sanctuary, respite, sponsorship, bond money to our community members harmed by ICE. We see you fighting for ICE free cities, schools, and neighborhoods. This past summer, when asylum-seeking children were being ripped from their parents, we were angry and determined and we were not going to allow business as usual until it stopped. And we did not end there - we saw the way the whole immigration system was designed to dehumanize and break down families and we expanded the call to #AbolishICE. That call has now become part of the demands during this current electoral season.

#AbolishICE is not just a rallying cry or a utopian dream. It is an achievable goal - to dismantle the deportation force and replace it with an immigration system that is fair and humane - and to get there we must include steps to reduce their funding and power.

UUSC has created a toolkit with ways you can participate.

If you can only do one thing, please take the time now to make 3 phone calls to your Senators and Representative:

  • Call (866) 940-2439 and ask to be connected to your Representatives or Senators. Here is a sample script:

“Hello, my name is [first and last name], and I am your constituent from [city/town]. I’m calling to ask you to withhold funding for immigration detention, deportation, and “zero tolerance” prosecutions of immigrants in this year’s spending bills. Instead, I urge you to direct these funds to community-based alternatives to detention, as well as refugee-related accounts that promote human rights. Detaining and separating families and prosecuting asylum-seekers are violations of human rights, as well as of my principles as a personal of faith and conscience. I ask you not to support these injustices in my name.”

We will work together towards an end to ICE and the building of a more just system - one key step is to make sure that they don't receive any new and increased funds from Congress.

And our work on the ground with front-line migrant justice organizers continues.

  • The Mijente ‘Chinga La Migra - Resist ICE’ Tour & Web Series continues around the country. Watch the tour videos that expose how local and state governments are collaborating with ICE and what we can do to resist them.
  • We resist hand-in-hand through local efforts like ICE and Court accompaniment to stop deportations, through opening our hearts and homes to refugees, through fundraisers to post bail and bond for people who have been unjustly criminalized. We work locally to end money bail and stop local police from working with immigration enforcement.

And this week, tell Congress not one more cent for the deportation machine and not one more cent for ICE.