There is currently a crisis at our southern border. Immigrants are fleeing their Central American Nations seeking safety and refuge from war, violence, and natural disasters. The use of detention as an enforcement strategy has led to the prolonged incarceration of both lawful permanent residents and asylum seekers alike.(https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/abuse-immigration-detention).

 

We have long read reports stating that children have been separated from their parents, neglected and “caged”. Other reports state that the immigrants are locked  in overcrowded and cold conditions. Their medical treatment is said to be substandard at best. They are subjected to physical, emotional, mental, verbal, and sexual abuse and hate-based invective. Conditions at ICE detention centers are reported to be a little better. (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/just-hateful-abuse-immigrants-face-detention-centers/

 

In addition, COVID 19 has had a devastating effect on detainees and as well as prisoners in other settings as a result of overcrowded conditions and substandard medical care.

The immigrant detainee system results from a set of immigration enforcement policies aimed at deterring undocumented immigration by incarceration, punishment and criminalization. These immigration deterrence policies are supported by many in congress and are intended to send a clear message to unauthorized migrants. This system of deterrence is both legally and morally corrupt. The use of deterrence as a justification for detention must be removed from the immigration enforcement system, and alternative, humane means of enforcing our immigration policies must replace them.

If the current deterrence based policy is not changed, detained immigrants will continue to suffer under inhumane conditions that are unworthy of a nation that claims to be advanced . The current situation severely and negatively effects America’s reputation as a place of refuge for those looking for an opportunity to start over, or to escape tyranny. Under current conditions, refugees are fleeing from one form of tyranny only to wind up in another. The conditions under which  these detainees live is a stain on our nation’s moral and legal conscience. Such cruelty must be ended immediately if the US is to have any claim to the term "advanced" 

"The Land of the free and the home of the brave", re the ideals our Nation must live up to. We need to be the Nation that deserves the Statue of Liberty that stands in NY harbor.