“This policy would treat them as criminals” – Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner
Washington, DC – The New York Times reports that the Biden administration is considering reinstatement of family detention at the US-Mexico border as a means to deter families from coming to the US to seek safety. This comes as the administration has unrolled multiple efforts to restrict access to asylum and the Title 42 public health expulsion policy is scheduled to expire on May 11.
Faith groups along migrants’ journeys, at the US southern border, and across the nation have been the first to meet and serve asylum-seeking children and families. Heeding their faith callings to welcome the sojourner, protect the vulnerable, and pursue justice, religious groups have resisted Biden’s plans to enact an asylum ban and expand Title 42—and have instead called on the administration to pursue compassionate solutions that keep families together and affirm migrants’ legal and human right to seek safety.
Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) members issued the following statements:
“We remember the impact on children and families who have suffered through detention, ‘we imagine we are there with them,’ (Hebrews 13:3). There is no appropriate justification for this,” said Giovana Oaxaca, Program Director for Migration Policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and IIC Co-Chair, “It is wrong—and better, more humane, and responsible alternatives exist for the purposes of compliance. It is troubling and disheartening to see the administration suggest reneging on its progress towards ending the practice of family detention, giving legitimacy to others seeking to adopt even more inhumane policies. We often hear our leaders espousing more humanitarian views on the treatment of asylum-seekers; nevertheless, we see many instances where this is undermined by fear and rejection of the other. Hopefully, the administration feels the pressure to withdraw this proposal.”
“We are outraged to hear that the Biden Administration is considering reinstating the detention of immigrant families,” said Kristin Kumpf, Director of Human Migration and Mobility at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the co-chair of the IIC Asylum and Detention Working Group. “The Administration has broken numerous promises to create a more humane and just immigration system. It is immoral and inhumane to lock up families in detention facilities instead of welcoming families seeking refuge, as our faith traditions dictate. We must call on the Biden Administration to offer dignified solutions for immigrant families instead of inflicting more pain.”
“As a community of the faithful, we are monumentally alarmed at reports that the Biden administration is considering reinstating family detention and deeply saddened that at each turn, when presented with the challenges of addressing complex immigration realities, the administration is choosing to entrench us even further into the harmful policies of detention,” stated Katie Adams, IIC Co-Chair and Policy Advocate for the United Church of Christ. “All of the humanity has been leached out of the immigration system, and we’re left with a wholesale abdication of our moral responsibility to care for those seeking a safe harbor. It’s not that more humanitarian solutions don’t exist—they just exist beyond the current political imagination and will in Washington. Advocates and immigrants have time and again offered ways we can reshape our immigration system to remember that migrants are people, with lives and stories. We stand here asking the administration to listen to the voices of the most impacted, to remember the humanity of each person.”
“Family detention causes suffering, chaos, and compounds an already complicated problem,” stated Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, President, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. “The Biden administration’s policies and proposals have not lived up to campaign promises or to international law and best practice. There are better solutions, and most importantly, solutions that uphold the dignity and rights of people seeking refuge, safety, and life.”
“We are deeply disappointed, disheartened, to read that the Administration is considering reinstating detention of families in immigration facilities,” said Pablo DeJesús, Executive Director of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice. “They had it right the first time: families belong together, in safe, healthy environments—not in prison-like conditions. Our faith calls us to advocate for a humane, efficient welcoming of migrants to this country, and to oppose policies that threaten migrants’ health and well-being, or provide incentives for family separation. The Biden administration must not renew the practice of family detentions. Detention is not the way to treat the vulnerable, those seeking refuge and shelter from harm.”
“Family detention—and immigrant detention in DHS custody—is immoral and wrong. Faith communities have long denounced the cruel practice of family detention that should be viewed as a betrayal of our spirit of welcome. Any effort to restore harmful family detention practices would be a callow political move that serves as a punitive deterrence mechanism that undermines our moral obligations to welcome. This policy would cause direct harm to families and children fleeing horrors and danger,” said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Church World Service. “We call on the Biden administration to refute these reports, make a commitment to uphold our values of compassion and welcome, and dedicate resources to protect the vulnerable, not persecute them.”
“Reports that the Biden Administration is considering a reinstatement of family detention at the border are not only chilling, but also morally abhorrent,” said Sr. Marie Lucey, Associate Director of Franciscan Action Network. “It is contrary to the Administration’s former stated position that families belong together in a safe environment—not held in detention at the border while seeking safety in this country. As people of faith committed to welcome and hospitality, we Franciscans are deeply disappointed in this Administration’s restrictive plans for political purposes and urge them to redirect their efforts toward providing compassionate measures that affirm human dignity, the legal right to seek asylum, and keep families together.”
“We are disappointed that the Biden administration is considering reinstating family detention at the southern border. Many of these children and families are seeking refuge on our shores, fleeing violence and dangerous conditions. Rather than treating these families as asylum seekers, this policy would treat them as criminals,” said Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “As a Jewish community—one that is made up in part of immigrants, refugees, and the descendants thereof—with a long history of sojourning in foreign lands, we are particularly sensitive to ensuring that the rights of noncitizens and citizens alike are protected by our nation’s immigration policies. We urge the Biden administration to refrain from reinstating the family detention policy.”
“The very concept of family detention is antithetical to core American values and robs vulnerable people of their God-given dignity,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “President Biden should instead focus on keeping his campaign promise to invest in humane alternatives to family detention, such as case management programs. These programs allow asylum-seeking families to live with dignity and satisfy their immigration requirements at a fraction of the cost to both taxpayers and our nation’s reputation as the world’s humanitarian leader.”
“We celebrated the end of the widespread use of long-term detention for families. It was a step toward compassion and justice,” stated Rev. Dr. J Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). “Now we lament the decision to possibly reinstate this policy. It will cause unnecessary pain and suffering for the children and their parents who are seeking protection. We urge the Biden Administration to stop relying on costly, painful policy strategies and seek ways that allow for mercy and care.”
“Mr. President, your words of welcome are ringing hollow. The National Advocacy Center urges you to renounce the media reports that you are considering the cruel act of detaining families who cross the border seeking better and safer lives,” said Fran Eskin-Royer, Executive Director of the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. “See them. Aid them. It is our duty – your duty – to welcome them, not turn them away and not detain them.”
“We have seen the devastating impacts family separation has on mothers, fathers, children, and siblings seeking refuge and better opportunities,” said Rev. Adam Taylor, President of Sojourners. “The reports of the Biden administration considering enacting this practice again is not only disappointing and antithetical to our faith values, but contrary to the humane approach to immigration the Biden Administration promised. Deterrence through separating families is both immoral and ineffective. Instead, we call on the administration to address root-causes, provide safe pathways to refuge, and partner with faith-based organizations to welcome migrants with dignity.”
“We decry the possible move of the Biden-Harris Administration to reinstate harmful detention policies regarding migrant families and children,” said Rev. Kendal L. McBroom of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. “President Biden campaigned on the principle that he would do no harm. As United Methodists, our Social Principles call us to treat the migrant with dignity and respect. To not do so is to treat the One who came as the incarnate Word in the same manner. Therefore, we call on the Biden-Harris Administration to allow families to stay together and create solutions that bring protection and peace for those seeking asylum rather than fear and trepidation.”
“Immigration detention centers are inhumane, designed to deny the dignity of a human being, and their conditions have led to the deaths of adults and children. That is why President Biden, during the 2020 presidential campaign, promised to end the practice of family detention,” said Jorge Palacios Jr, Migration Coordinator for Youth Engagement for the Ignatian Solidarity Network. “To return to this practice of detaining families—most of whom are seeking asylum and include children, toddlers, and infants—is an affront to the inherent human dignity of migrants. As Pope Francis said in his message for the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2019, ‘our response to the challenges posed by contemporary migration can be summed up in four verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate.’ In that spirit, the Ignatian Solidarity Network asks the Biden administration to uphold its promise to end the practice of family detention, and instead work toward governmental policies, rules, and regulations that welcome, protect, promote, and integrate those migrating who arrive at the U.S. border.”
“There is absolutely NO excuse for family detention. No excuse to jail, mistreat, criminalize, traumatize, and dehumanize families seeking safety for their children,” said Claudia Marchan, Immigration Law & Justice Network. “The only way to ‘decrease the number of illegal crossings’ and ‘seek a legal pathway,’ as President Biden states, is to provide legal pathways period. Currently the administration has demonstrated constant attacks on immigrants, bans on asylum, continued use of harmful policies like title 42 and the revival of policies that had been promised to be undone. This is unacceptable and inhumane. It is time to ACT; the federal government must provide legal pathways for immigrants to securely and safely immigrate to the United States and respect human rights.”
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of over 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants. Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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