Sign the petition to tell President Biden: No family detention!

President Biden took office promising to end cruel Trump-era policies like family separation and detention. After bringing an end to family detention in 2021, the Biden administration is now reportedly considering reviving the practice of detaining immigrant families.

Immigration detention is a failed policy that inflicts irreversible life-long trauma on families, especially children. Professional organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) itself have highlighted the harms that come from family detention. In 2021, DHS’s own medical experts served as whistleblowers emphasizing to Congress that any amount of detention could be harmful to children.

Family detention centers are historically abusive environments, where medical and mental health care is scarce, disciplinary tactics are cruel, and families lack access to basic necessities. Under confinement it becomes more difficult for families to access counsel, making it all but impossible to pursue their immigration claims. Additionally, officials have raised concerns that the policy would encourage parents to send their children to the U.S. alone so as to not risk detention as a family, thereby creating de facto family separation.

The Biden administration is well aware of the harms that come from family detention and can do better than implement abusive policies that lead to family separation, subject families to life-long trauma, and line the pockets of private prison companies. Members of Congress have spoken out about President Biden’s plans to detain immigrant families and are prepared to work with the administration to provide legal pathways for immigration and uphold human rights without caving to anti-immigrant fear-mongering.

In a tweet shared by President Biden in June 2020, he stated, “Children should be released from ICE detention with their parents immediately. This is pretty simple, and I can’t believe I have to say it: Families belong together.

Sign the petition to tell President Biden: No family detention!

Participating Organizations
18 Million Rising
Blue Future
Daily Kos
Democratic Values
Faithful America
Forward Blue
Justice For Our Neighbors El Paso
MPower Change
United We Dream Action
SEIU