Rep. Chu to Tour Immigrant Family Detention Facilities in Texas
Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27) joined seven other members of Congress to announce her participation in a Congressional delegation to tour the Dilly and Karnes immigrant family detention centers in Texas on June 21-22. Despite a 1997 settlement requiring children to be held in the least restrictive way possible, the use of prison-like detention for immigrant families has increased in the last year. Rep. Chu released the following statement:
“We need to shed light on what’s going on inside our nation’s largest immigrant family detention centers. And that is going to start on the ground in Texas next Monday with our visit to Dilley and Karnes. Since family detention resurrected in the last year, we have heard far too many heart breaking stories. We’ve heard the stories of women victim to horrendous gang and domestic violence arriving with their young children to our border seeking refuge, only to be held in jail-like detention facilities for months at a time. And they are not the exception. In fact, 75 percent of detained families have demonstrated ‘credible fear’ of persecution in their home countries.
“Worse than delaying the safety they rightfully seek, detention is re-traumatizing these families. We know the stress and uncertainty of detention threatens childhood development, leads to weight loss, and chronic illness. The rigid structure and control of detention breaks down the parent-child relationship. Children become uncertain as to whether their mothers can protect them. And mothers lose hope. We’ve heard recent stories of mothers attempting suicide rather than be penned up any longer. Stories of women giving up on their asylum claims because they know they will remain detained if they fight for their case. Family detention is a clear contradiction to our values and it must end.
“With this trip, it is my hope that my colleagues and I can learn firsthand the stories of these brave families, how they have been treated once they arrived, and, most importantly, how we can help. We hope our presence will make it clear to these families that Members of Congress are watching what is going on at these facilities and we will not turn a blind eye. We will bring back these stories to the Capitol, to the House floor, and to Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and we will fight until this cruel and un-American practice is ended once and for all.”
The other Members of Congress on the trip are: Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Reps. Joaquin Castro (Texas), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (Texas), Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (Calif.).