COMMUNITY MEMBERS HOLD RALLY DEMANDING the BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SHUT DOWN DETENTION CENTERS, END DEPORTATION, AND RELEASE ALL PEOPLE in IMMIGRATION DETENTION
Communities Will Rally In Support of the National Communities Not Cages Day of Action at Foley Square in New York City
For Media Contact or interview requests
Uchechukwu Onwa – uchechukwu@qdep.org
Fanta Fofana fanta@familiesforfreedom.org
For Immediate Release
New York City, NY | March 3rd, 2022
Today, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project and Families For Freedom gathered more than 100 people together for a rally calling for the Biden administration to take immediate action to shut down immigration detention centers, including Orange County Correctional Facility in New York State, end deportations, release all people in immigration detention and cut Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) budgets. Today’s direct action is one of nearly 30 actions nationwide that took place as a part of Detention Watch Network, FIRM Action, United We Dream, American Friends Service Committee, and the We Are Home Campaign’s “Communities Not Cages” National Day of Action. Following Biden’s State of the Union address, advocates expressed their deep disappointment and frustration over the administration’s broken campaign promises while demanding urgent action be taken.
Rather than reducing detention as promised along the campaign trail that was reaffirmed by Biden as recently as April of 2021, the administration has instead embarked on a troubling pattern of detention expansion and has embraced Trump-era anti-immigrant policies, including the harmful “Remain in Mexico” program and Title 42 border closure and expulsions. “No one is free until we’re all free. Rain, Sleet, or Snow we will continue to advocate for a pathway to citizenship for all, and if you disrespect our existence be prepared for our resistance” Said Janay Cauthen Acting Executive Director Families For Freedom.
On Thursday, February 4th, 2021 president Joe Biden in his foreign policy speech, stated that he had signed a presidential memorandum, intended to “reinvigorate our leadership on the LGBTQI issues and do it internationally”. He explicitly mentioned protecting LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers. “We’ll ensure diplomacy and foreign assistants are working to promote the rights of those individuals included by combatting criminalization and protecting the LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers,” one year later he is yet to fulfill his promise, said Uchechukwu Onwa, QDEP’s Organizing Director. We must, and we will continue to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for its promises to protect all immigrants, including Black and Brown Queer and Trans asylum seekers. the entire U.S. immigration system continues to be a for-profit entity that thrives off the despair and criminalization of immigrants.
Johanna Zacarias, Staff Attorney in the Immigration Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said: “Every person I have represented has told me the same thing while detained by ICE: nothing has made them feel as dehumanized as being in immigration detention. That’s the purpose of immigration detention. The Dignity Not Detention Act is a pivotal and decisive step toward ending immigration detention nationally. New York should follow the example of states like California, Washington, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois and Virginia, and send a clear message that it will not profit from human suffering anymore by passing this legislation now.”
The Orange County Correctional Facility in New York State exemplifies how the detention system as a whole is fundamentally flawed. The facility has a well-documented record of abuse, including ongoing racist abuse, medical neglect, violent retaliation, punitive solitary confinement, COVID-19 negligence, religious discrimination, and overall intolerable conditions at the OCCF. The Orange County Correctional Facility currently detains over 150 people and is operated by ICE Sheriff’s Department. Organizers from the AbolishICE NYNJ have long been calling for the facility’s closure. “For years, New York has been complicit in the incarceration of immigrants, resulting in community disenfranchisement and ongoing abuse and neglect,” says Cynthia M. Galaz, Senior Policy Associate with Freedom for Immigrants “NY now has the opportunity to change this by joining the national
movement to end immigration detention. By passing the DND bill, NY will prioritize the wellbeing of immigrant communities over profit,” “Immigration detention is the antithesis of a safe, healthy, and trusting community,” said Rosa Cohen-Cruz, Director of Immigration Policy at The Bronx Defenders. “ICE has the ability to release people in detention but chooses to keep immigrants detained or transfer them to remote facilities far from their loved ones. State legislatures must intervene by passing the New York For All Act and Dignity Not Detention Act. It’s past time that we end ICE’s operation in our state and divert these resources back to our communities.”
——-
The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) assists folks coming out of immigration detention in securing structural, health/wellness, educational, legal, and emotional support and services. We work to organize around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQIA TS & GNC detainee/undocumented folks face related to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression/identity.
QDEP is a proud member of the Detention Watch Network, Freedom For Immigrants, New York Immigration Coalition, AbolishICE NY/NJ Coalition, as well as the International Detention Coalition. QDEP is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action (CTA). CTA, an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is legally and financially responsible for all our project activities.
Families for Freedom (FFF) is an immigrant rights and human rights organization founded in 2002 by and for immigrants with criminal convictions facing detention and deportation and their loved ones. FFF seeks to repeal the laws that are tearing apart our homes and neighborhoods and to build the power of immigrant communities as communities of color to provide a guiding voice in the growing movement for immigrant rights as human rights. FFF has evolved into an organizing center against deportation. We are a source of support, education, and campaigns for directly affected families and communities — locally and nationally.
