End Mandatory Detention for Immigrants With No Criminal History
The Issue
A man from Burkina Faso survived a terror attack on his village, crossed the Darién Gap on foot, and was held at gunpoint four times before reaching the U.S. border. He immediately asked for asylum. That was 19 months ago. Since then, he has spent every single day in an immigration detention center. He has a wife, three children, and a baby daughter born while he was locked up who he has never met.
His one request, as told to a rabbi who visits him at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey: "I just want to walk in a straight line for five minutes."
He is not alone. More than 10,300 people have been held at Delaney Hall between May 2025 and March 2026. Over 70% of them have no criminal history. A memo issued by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons in July 2025 eliminated bond hearings for millions of people, including asylum seekers with no record of any kind, by reclassifying their detention as "mandatory." Since then, the population in ICE custody has jumped from 39,000 to 71,000. The Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the legality of this policy in October, but thousands of people are losing months and years of their lives in the meantime.
Ninety percent of those detained are held in facilities run by private contractors. GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall, received a government contract worth $1 billion. Congress then allocated $45 billion more for detention expansion. The longer people stay, the more the company earns.
Inside Delaney Hall, detainees report moldy food served cold on weekends, guards waking them at 2 in the morning for headcounts, and week-long waits to see a doctor. When asked about these conditions, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson responded: "Being in detention is a choice."
Seventy-nine percent of people in ICE detention nationwide have no lawyer. Unlike criminal defendants, they have no constitutional right to one. The man from Burkina Faso has no attorney and no update on his asylum case.
Sign this petition to demand that Congress restore bond hearings for all asylum seekers in immigration detention, mandate legal representation for every person in ICE custody, and end the policy of indefinite detention for people with no criminal history.
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The Issue
A man from Burkina Faso survived a terror attack on his village, crossed the Darién Gap on foot, and was held at gunpoint four times before reaching the U.S. border. He immediately asked for asylum. That was 19 months ago. Since then, he has spent every single day in an immigration detention center. He has a wife, three children, and a baby daughter born while he was locked up who he has never met.
His one request, as told to a rabbi who visits him at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey: "I just want to walk in a straight line for five minutes."
He is not alone. More than 10,300 people have been held at Delaney Hall between May 2025 and March 2026. Over 70% of them have no criminal history. A memo issued by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons in July 2025 eliminated bond hearings for millions of people, including asylum seekers with no record of any kind, by reclassifying their detention as "mandatory." Since then, the population in ICE custody has jumped from 39,000 to 71,000. The Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the legality of this policy in October, but thousands of people are losing months and years of their lives in the meantime.
Ninety percent of those detained are held in facilities run by private contractors. GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall, received a government contract worth $1 billion. Congress then allocated $45 billion more for detention expansion. The longer people stay, the more the company earns.
Inside Delaney Hall, detainees report moldy food served cold on weekends, guards waking them at 2 in the morning for headcounts, and week-long waits to see a doctor. When asked about these conditions, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson responded: "Being in detention is a choice."
Seventy-nine percent of people in ICE detention nationwide have no lawyer. Unlike criminal defendants, they have no constitutional right to one. The man from Burkina Faso has no attorney and no update on his asylum case.
Sign this petition to demand that Congress restore bond hearings for all asylum seekers in immigration detention, mandate legal representation for every person in ICE custody, and end the policy of indefinite detention for people with no criminal history.
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Petition created on July 27, 2026