A group of Central American mothers and their young children who came to this country seeking protection have been imprisoned for months on end now. Many of them have been in “family detention” for as long as a year, some of them longer.

It has been more than a year since "family detention" was declared unlawful by a federal judge, and more than a year since the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued its scathing report calling for an end to family detention. 

Life in this prison is so terrible that a group of 22 mothers went on a hunger strike when DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson stated publicly that mothers and children in their situation were being detained for no longer than 20 days on average. These mothers are still pleading for their freedom and that of their children.

Please sign my petition in solidarity with these courageous mothers, demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) free them.

The detention of these mothers and children is unlawful and cruel, and not how we should treat traumatized families who are seeking safety in our country. There are children as young as 2 years old who have been living in this “baby jail” for as long as a year.  The mothers who went on the hunger strike came to the U.S. desperately seeking protection under the law. 

Support the Berks mothers and sign to demand that DHS free them and their families.

Berks Family Prison is not a safe or healthy place for anyone to be living. Detainees are deprived of sleep, their access to legal counsel and medical attention is interfered with, and they are constantly threatened for speaking up about the mistreatment. When the Berks Mothers began their hunger strike back in August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement threatened that they would lose custody of their children if they didn’t stop. In response, the mothers fasted (one meal a day) for a week to give ICE the opportunity to make the humane, just and lawful choice to free them. While the hunger strike ended, many of the Madres Berks are still detained with their children to this day.

This is unacceptable and has to stop.

Please sign our petition in support of the Madres Berks, so that they may be released to their families while their asylum cases are processed. There is no reason for these women and children to be in detention.

Photo credit: Mark Makela for The New York Times