A group of 193 pro-migrant groups has jumped to action with a letter demanding that Joe Biden act quickly to thwart Donald Trump’s plan to initiate a program of mass repatriation of illegal aliens.
The organizations released their letter on Friday to urge Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to ” take immediate action to protect immigrant communities while you still can.”
“In your remaining months in office,” the letter states, “you have an opportunity to honor your stated commitments to the dignity and humane treatment of all people, including those who immigrate to our nation, before the next president follows through on his mass deportation plans, separating families and upending the lives of millions of people in the process.”
The letter goes on to make a series of demands on specific actions Biden should take to set back Trump’s plans before he even gets into office.
The first demand is for Biden to shut down all federally operated migrant detention centers. These facilities, the groups allege, “have documented instances of physical abuse, inadequate food and water, negligent or abusive medical care, unsanitary conditions, failed plumbing and more. Avoidable deaths in ICE detention centers are at record numbers.”
The group says that Biden should end the government-sponsored detention centers and turn the task over to “private companies” as he has reportedly promised to do.
The groups also want Biden to stop the expansion of the ICE detention system “by freezing all negotiations and rescinding all Requests for Proposal (RFP) and Requests for Information (RFI).” The groups want Biden to cancel all plans to open facilities in cooperation with private prison corporations.
This expansion, they say, “will have disastrous effects on our immigrant and mixed-status community members.”
“To protect families and prevent separations, you must take all possible action to prevent the incoming administration from being able to easily expand detention capacity, including by pressuring Congress to pass a reduced appropriation for immigration detention,” the letter continued.
The final demand is for Biden to release everyone currently in ICE detention centers.
The letter goes on to say:
We ask that you take action to release people from detention, starting with particularly vulnerable populations (including people with physical and mental health conditions) and those eligible for parole, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or other protections. People can and should be able to go through their immigration proceedings in community with the support of their loved ones and access to legal support.
The goal, the letter concludes, is to hamstring Donald Trump as much as possible.
“Now is the time to take decisive action to prevent catastrophe for millions of people and avoid handing the keys to an expanded and inhumane detention and deportation system to the next president,” the letter concludes.
Donald Trump has pledged to initiate a large-scale repatriation plan, but these groups want to put as many road blocks in front of his effort as they can while they still have operatives in the White House who are compliant.
The letter is endorsed by 193 pro-illegal migrant groups, including Al Otro Lado, Alianza Americas, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Faith in Action, Freedom Network USA, the Hope Border Institute, Human Rights Watch, the Immigrant Defense Project, the Immigrant Justice Network, Immigration Hub, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, the National Immigration Justice Center, United We Dream, Witness at the Border, and dozens more.
Many of these groups are backed or funded by pro-migration investors and business groups looking for cheap labor to exploit.
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