In response to recent media reports about the return of family detention, Tahirih Justice Center’s CEO Archi Pyati states, “Family detention is a cruel and inhumane policy that inflicts irreparable harm on children and their parents, violating both U.S. and international human rights law. Medical experts, including those within the Department of Homeland Security, have long warned that even short stays in detention centers lead to severe physical and mental health consequences, particularly for children and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Years ago, I met with detained mothers – survivors of trauma seeking safety from persecution – who were struggling to protect their children from abuse and degradation in detention. Organizations like Tahirih successfully fought for safer, more humane, and less costly alternatives and family detention was stopped once and for all. After all that, the Administration must never again warehouse families. It is a shameful practice.”
Read the Tahirih Justice Center’s report from 2015 on the harms of family detention, particularly for immigrant survivors of violence.
The above photo was taken during Archi Pyati’s visit to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX in 2015.
