Our Immigration Policy Is Not Only Unjust - It’s Un-American

Our nation’s current policy on immigration reform and the treatment of refugees is not just disappointing; it is directly opposed to the founding principles and the most enduring values of our nation.

Today, yes today, the United States of America maintains the largest system of immigrant detention camps of any nation on the planet. Not North Korea, not Yemen, not the People’s Republic of China, but us. The People of the United States.

Have we not learned the lessons of our shameful internment of Japanese Americans, of Irish immigrants, of our turning away of those fleeing the Holocaust in Nazi Germany?

One year ago, the American Bar Association put forward recommendations for addressing this injustice:

1) Immediately release families held at the Berks, Dilley, and Karnes family detention facilities, cease expansion of the facilities, and do not renew their contracts for family detention;

2) Permanently abandon deterrence-based detention policies;

3) Adopt a presumption against detention and treat release into the community as the general rule, particularly in the case of families, children, and asylum seekers;

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