Please tell Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration to shut down the Berks immigrant prison once and for all, by clicking to sign the pre-populated letter below which will then be automatically emailed to the listed targets. Signing the letter takes the same amount of time as signing an online petition.

ICE has detained immigrant families in Pennsylvania at the Berks County prison since 2001. In recent years, immigrant women at Berks have faced abuse, including rape and medical neglect. Under community pressure, ICE released all families from Berks in February of this year. But now ICE is working with Berks County to reopen the prison to detain immigrant women instead of families. On August 19, the County Commissioners approved the conversion plan.

This is not the immigration policy Joe Biden and Kamala Harris promised the American people. Please join the Shut Down Berks Coalition to demand that the administration cancel the contract and Shut Down Berks once and for all.

Please click to sign the pre-populated letter below which will then be automatically emailed to the listed targets. Signing the letter takes the same amount of time as signing an online petition.

*Preview the letter below*

I am writing to urge Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration to permanently close the Berks immigrant prison in Pennsylvania. ICE is pushing to detain immigrant women at the Berks immigrant prison despite the prison’s documented history of abuses against women. This is not the immigration policy President Joe Biden promised the American people when he campaigned. I am strongly urging the administration to cancel the contract and shut down the Berks immigrant prison once and for all.

In late February of this year, all families detained at the Berks County family prison were released to their relatives or sponsors. This is the first time in many years that the Berks immigrant prison has stood without detained immigrant families within its walls. Incarcerating immigrants - whether they be families, children, or individual adults - is abusive, unjust, and immoral. It is a violation not only of American civil liberties but also of international human rights. However, as families were being released, the Berks County Commissioners-- specifically Christian Leinbach and Michael Rivera-- began communications with ICE to convert the use of the facility into an immigrant women’s prison.

On Thursday, August 19, 2021, Berks County Commissioners Leinbach and Rivera voted in favor of restarting immigrant detention at Berks by incarcerating immigrant women. Even after Berks County residents unanimously expressed their strong opposition to the conversion and expansion plan, the Commissioners chose to ignore their voices. Fifty-two (52) Pennsylvania elected officials also joined the people’s demand for the closure of Berks by signing a letter to President Biden to end the ICE contract in Berks County.

Berks County residents are witness to the damage that these types of facilities bring to their county, this one in particular being the longest-running family prison in the U.S., which has imprisoned families, including very young children, for up to 21 months. We know that in other detention centers for women, such as the T. Don Hutto Detention Center (Hutto) -which was once a family detention center- there has been pervasive sexual abuse, retaliation, medical neglect, and nutritional deprivation. Following the exposure of the atrocious abuses that happened against families there, it was transitioned into a detention center for immigrant women. This did not stop abuse. Women imprisoned at Hutto have been subjected to further inhumane treatment, isolation and separation from family and community.

I unequivocally oppose new plans to imprison immigrants in Berks County. I support the Berks County community in their demand for the Biden administration to cancel the ICE contract and permanently shut down the detention center. I strongly urge you to take immediate action on this matter.