Did you see our email on Friday? Congress is voting soon on a budget bill – and if our representatives don’t hear from us now, they could give billions of our taxpayer money to ICE, funding nationwide mass detention of our immigrant neighbors and loved ones.
This fight couldn’t be more urgent. Every day, immigrants like Mahmoud Khalil face horrifying conditions at the hands of our government – and we wait on the sidelines while our tax dollars pay to expand ICE’s abuse of human rights.
Thanks for your action today,
The ACLU Team
It’s graduation season right now – and this week, Mahmoud Khalil should have proudly walked across a Columbia University stage to receive his master’s degree and celebrate with his wife and newborn son.
Instead, 76 days after his initial illegal arrest, Mr. Khalil is still being held in an ICE detention center thousands of miles away from his family, facing horrific conditions just for speaking out for Palestinian rights. But he’s not alone.
Right now, President Trump is demanding Congress give him more than $68 billion in taxpayer money to expand and fuel ICE’s abusive detention centers – the same centers where tens of thousands of immigrants are facing abuse, medical neglect, and complete disregard for human dignity.
We can’t let that happen. Tell Congress: Shut down the abusive ICE detention system.
The ACLU’s FOIA lawsuits have revealed ICE’s plans to massively expand their detention centers. Meanwhile, President Trump is asking for billions of additional dollars to fund ICE – funneling an unprecedented amount of resources towards a cruel and illegal policy of mass detentions and deportations.
This lines the pockets of private prisons with our tax money – while abandoning immigrants to inhumane and dangerous conditions. Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts student who was also illegally detained and sent to Louisiana for her lawful speech, faced multiple worsening asthma attacks while in ICE detention and didn’t receive adequate medical care. Immigrants in these facilities report degrading treatment, physical and sexual abuse, denial of basic hygiene needs, and a systemic lack of care for their basic human rights.
Yet Congress could vote soon to give even more money to this abusive mass detention machine. Our representatives must hear from us – join us in demanding that Congress reject any bill that would give more money to ICE.
We hope you’ll join us in demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s freedom and calling for an end to ICE’s mass detention machine.
The ACLU Team
ACLU of Washington
P.O. Box 2728
Seattle, WA 98111-2728