FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Anna Núñez, Communications Coordinator, ACLU of Texas, (713) 942-8146, ext. 110, [email protected]
HOUSTON – The mothers on hunger strike are protesting their prolonged detention. This is one of many problems with family detention and the Obama administration’s approach to immigration enforcement which emphasizes “an aggressive deterrence strategy” adopted following last summer’s increase in mothers and children coming to the United States.
Earlier this year, the ACLU of Texas joined with the ACLU's Immigrants’ Rights Project, the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin, and Covington & Burling LLP to challenge the Obama administration’s policy of denying bond to asylum seekers for deterrence purposes. A federal judge in D.C. ordered a halt to this practice. The following can be attributed to Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas:
“There isn’t a mother in this world who wouldn’t make this sacrifice to protect and help her children. It’s heart-wrenching that our country is imprisoning families, depriving them of their liberty, only because they are seeking the safety and security that only a nation like the United States can provide. Children don’t belong behind bars. Worse still, it’s inhumane and illegal and we call upon our President to set them free.”
