Week of Action to End Immigration Detention Quotas

Next week, the American Friends Service Committee is coordinating a national week of action to end immigration detention quotas. The United States has the largest detention immigration system in the world. This system has continued expanding in recent years due to the immigration detention quotas, a policy passed by Congress under which 34,000 immigrants are held in an Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention at any given time. Detention has resulted in human rights abuses, torture, and psychological abuses for those held and also uses taxpayer dollars to fund for-profit corporations that put a price tag on immigrant lives. Besides the expense to taxpayers, it also costs us our humanity. As people of faith, we are called to accompany our immigrant sisters and brothers who are caught in detention and our broken immigration system by working for more just immigration policies. Ending the detention quotas is the first step toward ending immigration detention and reforming our broken immigration system.

The AFSC has created a toolkit and suggests five ways to help end immigration detention quotas:

1. Meet with your U.S. representative during the August recess.
2. Sign the petition to end detention quotas.
3. Host a film screening or other public event.
4. Submit an op-ed to your local newspaper.
5. Educate yourself and others about this issue.