Sign this petition and share it today. We need public pressure to show lawmakers that mass detention expansion is strongly opposed and politically costly.

We, the undersigned, call upon the United States Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), state governments, and local officials to immediately stop all new ICE detention construction and expansion projects and begin the permanent closure of ICE detention centers nationwide.

As a liberal, democratic republic, the United States government has an obligation to act upon the will of the people. This is NOT what the majority of Americans want. Approximately 65% of Americans (across all political parties combined) believe that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gone "too far".

The Evidence for Closure of ALL Operating Facilities:

We reject the idea that expanding detention is in society’s best interest.

Courts across the country have ruled at least 4,400 times that ICE has kidnapped people illegally.

The vast majority of people in ICE custody are not violent and don’t have a criminal record.

In fact, over 70% of those currently in ICE custody do not have a criminal record at all. 

They have families and work. There are people in there who care for disabled family members and elders. There are even disabled people, children, and the elderly in ICE facilities themselves.

People are also developing severe illnesses while in custody. Reports and investigations have described people being denied insulin and dialysis, experiencing prolonged interruptions in medication, living in unsanitary conditions, suffering dehydration and infectious disease outbreaks, and experiencing worsening physical and mental health while detained.

Children have become sick after being served contaminated food, have been left without treatment for infections, lost access to necessary medications, and shown signs of developmental regression and toxic stress.

Reports document the confiscation of wheelchairs and canes, the denial of critical medications, and the near-total isolation of disabled and deaf detainees without interpreters.

One fatal incident involved border agents dropping off a blind man in the middle of the night in the freezing cold, which led to hypothermia and dehydration, causing his death. His name was Nurul Amin Shah Alam. 

Another fatal incident involved a Haitian immigrant named Marie Ange Blaise, who died when she was denied healthcare for chest pains while in ICE custody.

ICE has been facilitating environments that make people sick, and is contributing to the formation of both short-term and long-term disabilities—including mental health conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), seen in innocent people like Olivia Andre.  Even children have been developing PTSD from being imprisoned in an ICE facility or from their parents being detained.

ICE has also detained caregivers who care for their disabled family members. Taking away a caregiver from a disabled person can have deadly consequences, like the case of Wael Tarabishi.

Additionally, more than 145,000 American children have had a parent detained in Trump's ICE crackdown.

Shockingly, there are currently around 6,200 children who have been detained by ICE.

The Evidence to ALSO Stop New ICE Detention Construction:

Since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer, which funneled $45 billion dollars into mass detention, the system has shifted from "processing" human beings to "warehousing” human beings. 

Current federal plans propose transforming the immigration detention system through a network of 16 regional processing centers and 8 large-scale detention facilities while expanding capacity to approximately 92,600 detention beds nationwide.

The Plan

The signatures collected here will be delivered in person to federal lawmakers in Washington, D.C., as evidence that opposition to detention expansion is organized, measurable, and growing. This will be an official documentation of this administration’s denial of the will of the people.

This petition is also being used to raise awareness on the seriousness of what’s happening in the United States. We have seen similar things happen in the past, with things like Japanese Internment camps, Native American Residential Schools, and the eugenics movement—all here in the United States. We need to remind people that we are in the same territory as those horrific, historical atrocities. 

The signatures collected through this petition will be physically delivered in Washington, D.C., to federal decision makers and used to demonstrate organized public opposition to detention expansion and support for closing ICE detention centers nationwide.

Why This Is Personal to Me

As a seriously ill, disabled, and autistic Latina and U.S. citizen, the violence of our current immigration enforcement system hits terrifyingly close to home. Recently, I watched in absolute horror in a viral video as ICE agents violently targeted and dragged a disabled, autistic brown woman out of her car. She, just like me, was a U.S. citizen. She was brown, too. And that made her a target. Her name is Aliya Rahmen. 

I am legally disabled and have a serious illness and am medically fragile— as a result, I am in intensive home palliative care, use a power wheelchair, and require oxygen at the age of 34. I am also an Afro-Indigenous Latina born outside the U.S. mainland, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and of Puerto Rican descent.I know what it feels like to depend on medication, accommodations, mobility aids, and other human beings just to safely move through the world.

I ALSO know what it’s like to have my citizenship questioned by institutions that should know better. I’ve had to prove my citizenship before because others don’t see me as an American. It is an incredibly dehumanizing and even scary experience. I have a memory of my parents writing a letter to my sister's 4th-grade teacher, who told my sister she was not a U.S. citizen, back when we were kids. 

People from U.S. territories are often erased and treated as if our citizenship doesn't really count. Republicans have even referred to people like Bad Bunny as not being "real Americans."This belief has been ingrained in our society for decades. This is dangerous because it sets up even more Americans to become targets of ICE agents, most of whom lack proper training and knowledge on immigration. It also worsens racial profiling.

Puerto Ricans and people from other U.S. territories are U.S. citizens by birth, yet there have been documented cases of Puerto Ricans being wrongfully detained by immigration authorities despite their legal status. 

At the same time, some political figures and commentators have questioned or challenged the status and rights of people born in U.S. territories, including discussions about limiting recognition of citizenship tied to those places. This makes my already deteriorating body a very real target, and it puts those I love simply because they speak Spanish, have tan or dark skin, have a Spanish accent, or just simply look Latino. I’ve seen people like me die as a result of treatment by ICE and DHS. And they were brown and disabled, just like me. These stories are becoming all too common. Disabled people have died at the hands of ICE. Chronically ill people are literally avoiding the hospital because of ICE being stationed near medical centers in some states.

Please do not become desensitized. This has only worsened, and the only proven way to stop it is for the public to engage. I'm seriously ill, disabled and medically fragile. History has shown us over and over again that the vulnerable--children,  the disabled, and elderly are always the first to die. That has also been true with ICE. I'm doing everything to stop this. Will you help?

If you’ve made it this far, I’m asking you to fight with me and add your name. It takes ALL of us.

Decisionmakers include:

 MarkWayne Mullin, Secretary of Homeland Security

Marcos Charles, Acting Executive Associate Director, ICE enforcement and Removal Operations

Mark Amodei, Chair-- House of Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security