Rep. Omar Leads Letter Urging Executive Action on ICE Detention

Press Release

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) led a letter to President Biden's Director of Domestic Policy, Susan Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas urging the Biden administration to issue an additional Executive Order announcing a plan to phase out contracts between ICE and state, county, and local jails and prisons.

Immigration detention facilities, many of them operating through arrangements with local jails and prisons, have played host to serious and repeated allegations of abuse, including allegations of sexual assault, violations of religious freedom, medical neglect, and the punitive use of solitary confinement. In the past year, they have also become epicenters of COVID outbreaks, putting both detainees and staff at risk.

"Phasing out DHS contracts with localities for immigration detention is a much-needed step toward restoring basic humanity to our immigration system.," said Rep. Omar. "We must truly sever the financial incentives causing the expansion of an unnecessary and abuse-ridden system of mass incarceration. Now is our chance to stop this abusive system from causing more unnecessary harm."

"At a historic moment where immigration detention levels are at their lowest in a generation, now is the time to act to rein in a system of detention built on a disproven myth that immigrants fail to appear in court," wrote the members. "Indeed, several states, including California, New Jersey, and Maryland, have already taken steps to phase out both public and private detention. The federal government should follow suit. We urge the Biden-Harris administration to immediately enact an additional Executive Order to phase out contracts or agreements between ICE and/or the USMS with states, counties, and municipalities for the purposes of immigration detention."

The letter was signed by Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D., Cori Bush, André Carson, Gerald E. Connolly, Jim Cooper, Jesús G. "Chuy" García, Raúl M. Grijalva, Adriano Espaillat, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, Alan Lowenthal, Carolyn B. Maloney, James P. McGovern, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Jan Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib, Ritchie Torres, Nydia M. Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

"The United States' immigration detention apparatus cannot function without the complicity of states and localities who contract with ICE to cruelly and needlessly detain people for nothing more than their immigration status. Just as in privately operated detention facilities, conditions in state and local jails and prisons used for the purposes of immigration detention are abhorrent. And, just as within privately operated detention, localities are motivated to open and expand these contracts due to an underlying profit incentive. We thank Representative Ilhan Omar for calling on the Biden administration to take executive action to exit these contracts,"said Christina Fialho, Executive Director at Freedom for Immigrants.

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