NO to immigration detention at Guantánamo Bay or anywhere

I am writing to urge you to speak out against President Trump's plans to harken back to shameful parts of our history by using military bases like Guantánamo Bay to detain immigrants and ask that you say NO to any funding for immigration detention at military bases or anywhere. No one should be ripped away from their loved ones and suffer in Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention or in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. President Trump recently announced plans to detain 30,000 people at the Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba, open at least 4 new ICE detention centers with the capacity to detain at least 10,000 people, in addition to 14 smaller scale facilities with capacity for 700-1,000 people. If realized, this would more than double the size of the immigration detention system in the US. The existing immigration detention system is rife with abuse. People are deprived of their liberty, denied access to lawyers, separated from their families and loved ones, and subjected to horrific conditions. Expanding this system is a core part of Trump’s promise of mass deportation. Detention plays a crucial role in deportations - detention puts people’s lives in jeopardy, isolates people away from their loved ones and support networks, coerces people to sign their deportation order, and facilitates the logistics of deportations. Congress has the power to stop Trump in his tracks by exposing his cruel policy objectives and by denying him the resources he needs to carry out these plans. Say NO to funding for immigration detention across all federal budget and appropriations legislation.