We urge you to release immigrants from Strafford County Jail in Dover, or more people will die. Like other detention facilities, this jail is set to become an incubator for Covid-19.

When – not if – these tinderboxes explode, our facilities are not equipped to provide hospital-quality care or even burials. Inevitably, the virus will wash back into the community through guards, staff, and their families.

All immigrants in civil detention should be released now to return to their children, families, and communities. There is ample evidence that immigrants who are free from detention under local case management while awaiting court hearings have nearly a 100% compliance rate for future court appearances.

Strafford County is under contract with ICE to house detained immigrants. We urge NH lawmakers to communicate with state officials to safeguard vulnerable populations, officers and other staff, their families, courts and communities. One important action they can take is to urge ICE to release all civilly -detained persons currently held at the facility.

There are some straight-forward steps NH lawmakers can initiate:

1.Work for the release of asylum seekers and other civilly-charged immigrants from Strafford County Jail.

2.Enable them to move back into their communities and reunite with their families by empowering social service agencies and supportive faith groups to do the work that will be needed.

3.Work to eliminate or sharply reduce their unaffordable bonds.

4.For those who are ill or suspected of having Covid-19, remove them to a healthcare facility instead of solitary confinement.

You have a choice: Act now to save lives, or be on the wrong side of history.