Sign the petition: Shut Tornillo down

More than 1,800 children are still being detained. Will you sign this petition and demand the Tornillo facility be shut down immediately? 

Dear MoveOn member,

The federal detention facility in Tornillo, TX, was supposed to be temporary. But six months after it was created, the prison has been expanded three times. And now, there are more than 1,800 children who have been separated from their families being detained there—for weeks or months.¹ The Trump administration manufactured this crisis by slowing the process of reuniting families, causing thousands of children to be incarcerated for long periods of time. We cannot allow this to continue.  

Will you sign this petition and demand the Tornillo facility be shut down and that the children be released to their relatives or sponsors immediately? 

The federal prison in Tornillo, Texas, must be shut down, and all of the children must be released to relatives or sponsors. No similar prisons can be built. Imprisoning the children is unnecessary, cruel, and traumatic, causing long-lasting harm.

The children in Tornillo are being intentionally separated from their families by the government, creating more hoops for sponsors to jump through. Meanwhile, these children are being detained for weeks or months. Many children crossed the border unaccompanied to come to live with a relative, and some crossed with an aunt or uncle as their caregiver and were forcibly separated from them and sent to detention. 

None of the children have been accused of any crime. They are being cruelly used as bait to lure relatives who might claim them but could then be deported themselves.

This prison is a disgrace and is contrary to everything our country is supposed to stand for. The Trump administration opened the prison in the Texas desert as a model for a string of prisons it wants to build along our border to house asylum seekers and other immigrants. If allowed to continue, it would set a dangerous precedent and could lead us in a direction that history teaches us we must not go.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thank you.

—Rabbi Bruce Elder, Shut Tornillo Down Coalition

Source: 

1. "The Tornillo shelter for migrant children was supposed to close after 30 days. Here's why it's still open," PBS News Hour, November 29, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/61619?t=10&akid=222378%2E10220574%2EBjTl8H

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