We’re constituents and we’re horrified by the abuse of asylum seekers in our immigration system.

The right thing to do is to close these camps and let asylum seekers live in the community while they await their hearings on whether they can stay here.

Why?

• The in-camp child abuse documented by attorneys, doctors, and inspectors causes lifelong harm.
• The maltreatment of asylum seekers shames us at home and in the eyes of the world.
• Detention wastes taxpayer money. For $775 per day per person we get kids sleeping on concrete floors and going without proper care. But DHS says for less than $5 per person per day asylum seekers could live in community-based programs.

The camp system enriches private prison companies, their shareholders, and politicians who take their donations. Since you took office in 2002, private prison interests have donated more than $100,000 to your campaigns. We wonder if that money has bought your complicity. We hope you’ll prove it has not.

We, the undersigned constituents of Texas District 31, ask you to take action to close the camps. Will you?