Skip to main content
NIJC has a new Chicago address at 111 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60604 and a new email domain at @immigrantjustice.org.

Media Inquiries

Contact NIJC Communications Director Tara Tidwell Cullen at (312) 833-2967 or by email.

Statement by Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center

Today 33 Senate Democrats released a letter demanding the closure of family detention facilities. Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) applauds Senate Democrats for their strong leadership. The letter—signed by three quarters of the Democratic caucus in the Senate—builds on growing momentum to eliminate the practice of detaining immigrant mothers and children, following a similar letter sent by 136 House Democrats last week.

Since last summer, the U.S. government has increased the detention of mothers and children by more than 4,000 percent. Nearly all of these women and children are fleeing rampant violence and persecution in their home countries; 88 percent of recently arrived families in detention are passing their preliminary screenings to demonstrate their fear of return to their home country. Instead of providing them with the protection they need, these families are kept in isolated facilities with extremely limited access to counsel and in conditions of confinement that can re-traumatize survivors of violence, particularly children. Rather than permitting further harm to come to these families, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must stop detaining mothers and children. DHS should release families on alternatives to detention that cost as little as $5 per day compared to the estimated $343 cost per day per person it costs to detain mothers and children in family detention centers.

The United States cannot afford the incalculable moral cost of detaining asylum seeking families. As we recognize World Refugee Day this month and celebrate our nation’s long and proud history of providing safety to those fleeing violence and persecution, it is imperative that we demand an end to family detention.