LAS CRUCES, NM—In a press conference today in Washington, DC, Congressman Beto O’Rourke joined the growing number of House Democrats calling on the Department of Homeland Security to put an end to its shameful practice of family detention. The ACLU of New Mexico played a key oversight role to monitor conditions and defend due process for children and women locked up in the Artesia, NM last year.
The following quote can be attributed to Vicki Gaubeca, Director of the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights.
“New Mexico witnessed firsthand the inhumane practice of locking up vulnerable children and their mothers behind barbed wire. Family detention is wrong, and we need to stop it now. DHS should take a lesson from the communities of El Paso and Las Cruces that responded with compassion to families fleeing violence and rely on far less costly, humane and effective alternatives to give families seeking asylum or other immigration relief a fair chance in our judicial system. Women and children should be with their families or in community-based shelters while they await proceedings in immigration court.
We applaud Congressman O’Rourke for taking a stand against family detention and urge other members of Congress to join the call to end an embarrassing practice that goes against our American values of fairness and justice.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NnxtoIXJ88
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The ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights stands with border communities to defend and protect America’s constitutional guarantees of equality and justice for all families to live freely, safely and with dignity.