At the height of the detention crisis, more than 55,000 immigrants were jailed in prisons and camps across this country — kids in cages, families, trans women, pregnant mothers, and anyone else who has been caught by the immigration dragnet at our border. We have sent more than 60,000 asylum-seekers back to Mexico, where they’re forced into overcrowded tent encampments and often dangerous border towns with no resources and no access to lawyers while they wait for their day in court. Combined, both President Obama and President Trump have deported some 2 million people from the United States, separating families and ruining lives. Six children have died in border patrol custody. Hundreds more have died in the deserts along the southern border and somehow, we’re still shouting for #NoKidsInCages.
This is a humanitarian crisis. We went to Iowa during the most-anticipated Democratic caucus in modern history, going directly to voters to make sure they #DontLookAway from the human rights abuses committed on their watch. We need every political leader to support the Migrant Justice Platform. That means to support a pledge to halt all deportations, decriminalize immigration, end detention, and demilitarize our border.
We know how to create a sane, rational immigration system that gives justice to those who have suffered from our enforcement. That’s what our Migrant Justice Platform would do. We must ensure these policies are enacted immediately.