1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

The recent measles outbreak at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where two detainees tested positive for the virus as confirmed by the Texas Department of State Health Services, demonstrates the urgent public health crisis created by family detention policies. This facility, located 70 miles south of San Antonio, is ICE's largest detention center for children and families, and the crowded conditions that enable disease transmission put vulnerable children at unnecessary risk. Detaining children in congregate settings creates the exact environment where infectious diseases like measles spread rapidly. The Department of Homeland Security's response of quarantining exposed individuals and limiting movement within the facility only underscores how these detention centers function as incubators for illness. Children should not be subjected to conditions where disease outbreaks are an expected consequence of their confinement. These children have families who can care for them safely outside detention. Family detention serves no legitimate purpose that cannot be achieved through community-based alternatives, which have proven effective at ensuring families appear for immigration proceedings while allowing children to remain in healthy, stable environments. The current policy prioritizes detention over the wellbeing of children who have committed no crime. I am asking you to take immediate action to end the detention of children and families at facilities like the South Texas Family Residential Center. Specifically, I urge you to support legislation that prohibits family detention and requires the release of children to their families or sponsors while immigration cases proceed. The measles outbreak in Dilley is a warning that cannot be ignored. Children's health and safety must take precedence over enforcement policies that create preventable public health emergencies. Will you commit to supporting the immediate release of children from ICE detention facilities and ending the practice of family detention?