By Daphne Ho
WASHINGTON, DC – The ACLU this week announced its opposition to possible acts of detaining migrant families under the Biden Administration.
The ACLU statement was in response to a report from the New York Times that reports “the Biden administration plans to revive the practice of detaining migrant families to deter them from coming to the southern border to seek asylum.”
This conflicts with Biden’s previous position two years ago when he “condemned and shut down the practice,” said the ACLU, adding it “strongly opposes family detention, and has successfully fought previous administrations’ detention of families.”
The ACLU said its actions have reduced detainment at some locations, including the “T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Texas, the Artesia Family Detention Center in New Mexico, and… the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas.”
Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said, “How we choose to respond to the children and families fleeing violence and persecution who come to our border seeking safety says a lot about who we are as a nation.”
He adds, “Putting children and their parents behind barbed wire to deter them from seeking safety should shock the conscience of every American who believes in fairness, safety, and basic human dignity for all people.”
Romero argued, “If President Biden moves forward with these plans, he will be putting vulnerable, traumatized immigrant children at risk,” and asserts that the organization ”will fight him every step of the way.”
