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Family Detention Facilities

Written by Kacie Cotter-Harrigan on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.

Although it isn’t on the news, nearly a hundred families seeking safety in the U.S. from violence and persecution have been locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Berks family detention center in Pennsylvania and two detention facilities in Dilley and Karnes City, Texas.

Held in indefinite detention, they feel they are sitting ducks for COVID‐19, which runs rampant in the family detention centers. Declaring these detention facilities are “on fire,” a federal judge ordered ICE to release all children by July 17. Judge Gee doesn’t have the power to order the release of the parents, too, but we do. ICE will only release families together if they feel the cost of sustained outrage and pressure from people across the country. 

Right now, we have a choice: family unity or family separation. Our community must tell ICE: refugees are welcome here.

– Katherine Donnelly, Saratoga Springs

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