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On Thursday, March 3, from 12:10 pm to 12:50 pm (EST) the Miami Valley Immigration Coalition and partners brought immigrants and advocates together in Dayton, Ohio, to share stories of injustice and harm from the Biden Administration’s detention, deportation, and obstruction of asylum.
The direct action is one of nearly twenty actions taking place across the country during the “Communities Not Cages” National Day of Action supported by Detention Watch Network, FIRM Action, American Friends Service Committee, United We Dream, and the We Are Home Campaign.
The Miami Valley Immigration Coalition is an alliance for immigrant justice. The coalition includes faith communities and other organizations and individuals committed to immigrant justice.
Occurring the same week as Biden’s State of the Union address, advocates will express their deep disappointment and frustration over Biden’s broken campaign promises while demanding urgent action be taken.
Rather than reducing detention as promised along the campaign trail that was reaffirmed by Biden as recently as April 2021, the administration has instead embarked on a troubling pattern of detention expansion and has embraced Trump-era anti-immigrant policies, including the harmful “Remain in Mexico” program and Title 42 border closure and expulsions.
Just last month, Biden asked Congress to fund as many as 400,000 people in ICE’s “alternatives to detention” pilot program, which expands house confinement and curfew, a move that advocates denounce as an extension of detention through restrictive and abusive surveillance measures.
“The Biden administration bears full responsibility for the suffering inflicted on thousands of community members still in detention and their loved ones that feel their absence and are fighting to bring them home,” said Marcela Hernandez, organizing director of Detention Watch Network. “Detention is inhumane, morally and financially costly, and completely unnecessary. We remain steadfast in our demand to #FreeThemAll and end the use of immigration detention in its entirety.”