Family Detention and Family Separation
Letters and Statements from the Stated Clerk(s)
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Policy
Film Unmasks the Inhumanity of Family Detention
Enforcement Policies & Practices
Root Causes of Migration
Physical & Psychological Effects
Worship Resources
Take Action
LETTERS AND STATEMENTS FROM Current and previous STATED CLERKs OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, PC(USA)
Understanding that we profess a faith in Jesus who entered the world a refugee fleeing Herod, the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been making policy in support of refugees and asylum seekers since 1947. When the U.S. Government began detaining asylum-seeking families in 2014, the Reverend Gradye Parsons, then Stated Clerk of the PC(USA), applied decades of policy to speak out in support of the release of asylum seekers and the end of family detention. As this sinful policy continues today and has worsened with the separation of families, the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, current Stated Clerk of the PC(USA), continues to speak out against this practice.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Policy
FILM UNMASKS THE INHUMANITY OF FAMILY DETENTION
During the summer of 2014, more families from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador arrived in the United States than in any other year. Though the majority of these families were seeking protection, our government’s response was to engage in contracts with private prison companies and to increase the country’s family detention bed capacity from 85 to 4,000.
FAMILIES HELD CAPTIVE from Office of the General Assembly on Vimeo.
In May of 2015, members of the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) went to Southern Texas to visit the families as they were released and to visit the ministries serving and advocating for them. During this trip, OGA created the film, Families Held Captive. Advocates then and now decry this use of enforcement against asylum-seekers and children. Legal challenges have resulted in minor changes in the practice, but the government persists in detaining families and prioritizing their removal hearings as they arrive and ask for protection at the southern border.
Use the discussion leader (PDF) and attendee guides (PDF) to show this film to your church or community group today.
Watch, share, and learn more about how you can #EndFamilyDetention.
Enforcement Policies and Practices
Detention has been a tool used by many administrations to incarcerate those who cross the border into the United States without authorization or proper documentation. Different practices have been implemented along the way, but in 2014, the Obama administration authorized a significant increase in the use of family detention to address the increased numbers of family units fleeing northern Central America and asking for asylum in the United States. During that time beds available to family units went from a less than a hundred to more than 3,700 (US Detention of Families Seeking Asylum. Human Rights First, 2015).
Lawsuits were filed against the Obama administration for not following the requirements set in the original Flores v Reno case about detaining children for long periods of time. Out of those cases, a new ruling, Flores v Lynch, outlined new standards in which children, unless under extreme cases, must be released from detention within twenty days. In response to that ruling, the Obama administration’s policy and practice was to release the entire family unit within that twenty days to attend court hearings as their immigration cases came up.
Under the current administration, we witness increased enforcement efforts meant to again deter families from seeking safety and protection in the United States. New practices established under the “zero-tolerance” policy leans on detention just like previous administrations. However, knowing the restrictions established under the Flores agreement, the new policy is to charge all unauthorized border crossings as a criminal offense. Parents are therefore charged with a criminal offense that places them in the criminal court system necessitating the separation from their children. The Flores agreement was upheld and then strengthened by the court’s decision regarding Ms. L. et al. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), et al., which states that family separation was a violation of a parent’s right to family integrity. That decision forced the administration to reunite children with their parents. The administration announced plans to end family separation in an executive order in June of 2018, but the new plan is to incarcerate families and children together for much longer periods and increase family detention bed capacity to 12,000. Even with this new plan to end the separation of families, we are still very aware that hundreds of children remain in Health and Human Service’s custody because parents have been deported and they cannot find them, or extenuating circumstances keep children from being returned to family.
Criminalizing border crossings is still a policy. Customs and Border Protection continues to make it nearly impossible to reach a port of entry in the United States to ask for asylum. Congress and DHS continue to offer long-term family detention as a solution forcing families, who are seeking asylum, to handle their legal case within a detention center.
Facing Walls: USA and Mexico’s Violations of the Rights of Asylum-Seekers (Amnesty International)
Detaining Families: A Study of Asylum Adjudication in Family Detention (American Immigration Council)
Root Causes of Migration
The Department of Homeland Security holds parents and children in detention and prioritizes their removal cases to deter future migrants. This practice discounts the violence families face in their home countries. The migration of those seeking protection must be viewed bearing in mind the root causes of their flight if it is to be responded to lawfully and humanely.
Videos:
- Genesis Of Exodus(approximately fifty minutes) is a project of the Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and contains a film, a StoryMap, and a study guide, which delves into the root causes of migration from Central America.
- Central American refugees flee violence (approximately four minutes) (Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
- La Voz del Pueblo (The Voice of the People) documentary (approximately nineteen minutes) (Ignation Solidarity Network)
Reports:
- Understanding and Addressing Root Causes of Central American Migration to US (Church World Service)
- Children on the Run (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
- Women on the Run (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
Physical and psychological Effects
Children suffer emotionally, physically, and developmentally in prison. The family dynamic is undermined as children watch parents, their typical protectors and authority figures, being subjected to the authority of detention guards. Medical professionals, American Academy of Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical Branch, and medical professionals contracted by the Department of Homeland Security to assess family detention, all agree that this practice should be ended because of the harms that it places on children and families.
| Letter to the Senate from medical professionals contracted by DHS to assess care at family detention centers | Dr. Scott Allen and Dr. Pamela McPherson |
| Letter to Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson | American Academy of Pediatrics |
| Family Detention in Berks County, Pennsylvania | Human Rights First |
| I Know an American ‘Internment’ Camp When I See One | ACLU blog post by Satsuki Ina |
| Detention of Women, Children Must End Says Catholic Sister | op-ed by interim chaplain at the family detention center in Dilley, Texas |
Worship Resources
As people of faith, we take seriously the call to welcome the stranger and stand in solidarity with our Central American brothers and sisters. Use these resources to lift-up families seeking protection in your worship and reflection.
| Immigration Sunday Reflection | Office of Immigration Issues, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) |
| Prayer for the Separated Families at the U.S. Border | David Gambrel, Associate for Theology, Formation and Evangelism, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)] |
| “Beatitudes” | Prayer by the Reverend Alison Harrington, Pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church, Tucson, Arizona |
| Christian Prayer of Solidarity (PDF) | Interfaith Immigration Coalition |
| Pastor’s Toolkit (PDF): How do we talk about the children and families who are fleeing violence in Central America? | Interfaith Immigration Coalition |
| “The Children Come” | A hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette |
| “Abraham Journeyed to a New Country” | A hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette |
| “Jesus Entered Egypt” | A hymn by Adam M. L. Tice and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Glory to God, p. 154 |
| “God of the Traveler” | A hymn for separated families by William McConnell |
Take Action
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You can take action to end the detention and deportation of asylum-seeking families by educating your church and community, contacting your elected officials, and/or directly supporting families. Remember, with all of these actions, whether it be local faith or community partners, invite others to join you in this witness.
Education
Advocacy
Outreach
| Host a showing of Families Held Captive, a documentary created by the Office of the General Assembly about family detention and use our discussion leader guide (PDF) and attendee guide (PDF). |
| Use this whiteboard video, created by the Office of the General Assembly, in your Sunday school class or at your next Minute for Mission. |
| WRC/LIRS report—“Locking Up Family Values, Again.” |
| Read Articles 31–33 of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees to understand why this practice is in violation of international agreements about the treatment of refugees. |
| Learn more about the legal challenges to family detention in Flores v. Johnson. |
Office of Public Witness grassroots toolkit: Use the resources in this toolkit to organize a response in support of our neighbors fleeing from Central America.
Contact your elected leaders:
The Administration made the decision to imprison asylum-seeking families, separate families, and subject them to an expedited hearing process. Congress determines the funding of immigration enforcement thereby assisting the administration in carrying out these policies. Congress can also reform immigration law and provide lawyers for migrants asking for asylum and children, both of whom go without a lawyer under current law. Call, write, and email the White House and contact your Representative and Senators.
Suggested script:
My name is _____ calling from _____. I am a [name of your faith community] and a constituent, and I disagree with the government’s treatment of asylum-seeking families. The asylum-seeking families being prosecuted by the Department of Homeland Security are seeking protection from violence, trafficking, and domestic violence. I oppose the detention of these families. I oppose the separation of these families. I oppose the criminalization of the movement of asylum-seekers. I want parents and children who are in removal hearings to receive due process—not expedited hearing schedules. I want them to have lawyers provided by the government when they cannot afford to hire counsel.
Accompaniment and Sanctuary:
Many families seeking asylum in the U.S. will find that the recent changes to our asylum system have shut them out. View our supporting immigrants page to see how other Presbyterians and people of faith are offering their presence to assist those who have not had proper access to due process. Help a family at risk of deportation complete a family care plan. Some congregations are choosing to offer Sanctuary in their places of worship to those facing deportation.
| Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is working with the presbyteries in the states along the border to provide financial assistance to support humanitarian efforts. PDA’s primary concerns are (1) to help the parents find their children and to get the parents reunified, which often means also advocating for the parents’ release and (2) providing legal rights information and assistance to asylum seekers to be able to make their asylum claim. Initial grants have been sent to the Presbytery of the Pacific to support the work of Al Otro Lado and to the Presbytery of De Cristo to support The Florence Project. You can donate to PDA’s U.S. Refugee Emergencies Account DR000095 to help PDA expand their assistance. |
| The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) is a Texas nonprofit organization that began in 1986 in Madison Square Presbyterian Church to meet the needs of persons fleeing the civil wars and social upheaval in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. They continue to serve migrants today. Donate to reunite every child and post a bond for a parent to be released and reunified. |
| The Interfaith Welcome Coalition (IWC), a San Antonio based coalition of faith communities, organizations, and individuals, works collaboratively to welcome to our community refugees, asylum seekers, and at-risk immigrants, particularly women and children, and walk alongside them in their journey. You can more about how to volunteer with IWC to provide hospitality and transportation for asylum-seekers or you how you can donate to the backpack ministry that provides essential travel items for families as they move out of detention centers and travel to their final destinations. |
Connect families to much-needed legal assistance:
Women and children who are released from family detention still have to appear at a deportation hearing. The proof and legal theories behind their claim to stay in the U.S. are complex and they are not guaranteed a lawyer at this hearing. Court records show that less than 30 percent of families have representation in court. Without an attorney, families are prevailing on their claim for protection in only 1.5 percent of cases. With an attorney the rate increases to 26.3 percent.
Families must find representation and you can help.
- If you are an immigration lawyer or if you are bilingual, you can help women and children still in detention by offering pro bono legal services or assisting a lawyer with bilingual intake.
- Help fund the legal fees for parents in detention through the Karnes Pro Bono Project.
- For families who have been released, please help them connect with low-cost/no-cost immigration legal services in their community by directing them to Immigration Advocates Network’s search engine.
- If you know or are a member of a family who has received a final order of deportation, help your family or friends connect with a lawyer now before they are detained in an immigration raid. Make sure you know your rights and have created a family care plan in preparation for an immigration raid.
How to assist reuniting families separated in the immigration detention system:
Not all children separated by the “zero-tolerance” policy have been reunited. There is also worry that in certain situations, children may still be separated from their families. Organizations and individual allies are key in assisting families navigate the immigration detention system to ensure all those who can be safely reunited be returned to their family.
- Freedom for Immigrants,a U.S.-based nonprofit, has created an online tool, REUNITE, to assist in locating adults or children who have been disappeared into the U.S. immigration detention system. This includes people who are being held in U.S. immigration detention, in criminal custody, or in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters. Parents, family members, attorneys, and advocates may fill out this form to locate loved ones or clients who have been separated from their families.