FREE PEOPLE FROM ICE DETENTION

US taxpayer dollars are being used to pay for the hate-fueled immigration detention and deportation machine. Getting Congress to stop the flow of money in fiscal year 2023 is critical to stopping the shameful US legacy of criminalizing immigrants and people seeking safety here. 

The US finally designated temporary protected status for Cameroon, a momentous victory for the Cameroonian community members who have poured their hearts and souls into this fight. The fight to free people also means keeping people out of detention and ensuring they are not sent in harm’s way – because of the resilience, advocacy and relentless organizing from leaders like Cameroon Advocacy Network, Haitian Bridge Alliance and Cameroon American Council, and support from activists with Amnesty and across the country, tens of thousands of Cameroonians in the US can now apply for this protection and be safe from detention and deportation to a country facing conflict.

All children and their parents in ICE custody have finally been freed, marking a stop to the practice of family detention in the US and bringing the movement one step closer to ending arbitrary, mass immigration detention. This has been a hard and long fought battle from immigrants and asylum-seekers, the attorneys at ALDEA, Proyecto Dilley and RAICES, advocates and community members across the country – including Amnesty activists like you who made noise demanding an end to family detention for years. While we celebrate, we continue to demand an end to mass, arbitrary detention and to fight back against ICE’s so-called “alternative to detention” programs and other e-carceration methods that still harm, restrict and surveil hundreds of thousands of immigrant families and individuals today.

After more than two years detained, Maura has finally been released! Thanks to the hard work of her attorneys at the National Immigrant Justice Center, our partners at the [email protected] Coalition and American Friends Service Committee Colorado, and Amnesty activists around the world, Maura can finally reunite with her friends and loved ones, enjoy her passions of dancing, singing, and performing, and live without fear. Send a message of warm wishes and welcome to Maura here. And while we celebrate her freedom and resilience, we are reminded that our work is not done until we #EndTransDetention.

Pastor Steven, an ordained minister from Uganda, has been freed! While locked up for over two years in Texas, his health severely deteriorated under ICE’s watch and he faced constant threats and fears of removal. Collective pressure from Angry Tias and Abuelas, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Texas Civil Rights Project, Afripac, and Amnesty helped stop his deportation and improve medical care for his diabetes. After receiving a much-needed operation on his eyes, his vision loss has been reversed and he can now read with glasses. With further sustained support and relentless advocacy from his attorneys, sponsor, Amnesty activists and coalition partners, Pastor Steven can now finally fight for his right to pursue asylum in safety and freedom. 

“Freedom is an invaluable part of life that is priceless. Freedom often goes unnoticed until it’s taken away from you. I feel like a newborn baby; it’s as if I have been introduced to a new world altogether. I lived behind closed doors, was discriminated against and restricted, without privacy, as well as disrespected and my concerns disregarded on tension of rules. I experienced threats of deportation and so much more. But to wake up one morning free was like a dream.”