March’s focus – Immigration
While February saw a national emergency declared over the U.S.-Mexico border, stories continue to emerge about horrible mistreatment of children held by our government, as well as the ongoing wall debates. Our community have rallied time and again around immigrants in our community, as well as supporting children separated from parents, but I wanted to bring this back into focus for our actions this month.
There have been numerous disturbing stories coming out around children in immigrant detention, including the horrifying account of sexual abuse of children, infants and mothers being held in detention, an epidemic of mumps in detained immigrants, and an increase in miscarriages for women held in detention.
It is imperative that we hold our legislators accountable to ensure there is continuous monitoring and directives to improve the care of immigrants in detention – and to push to release more of these immigrants, especially children, families, and pregnant women. These stories point to human rights abuses that we cannot accept.
Contact your representatives and let them know: we expect them to monitor and address the conditions of immigrants held in detention, and that we need to ensure quality care for all immigrants, but particularly the children and pregnant women:
Rep. Paul Tonko (202) 225-5076
Rep. Elise Stefanik (202) 225-4611
Senator Chuck Schumer (202) 224-6542
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (202) 224-4451