FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2025

CONTACT: media@vera.org

WASHINGTON, DC – As Congress advances a stop-gap spending bill that includes nearly $500 million in additional funding for ICE detention and enforcement, the Trump administration has revived the indiscriminate and costly practice of detaining families with children by reopening two family detention centers in Texas. These detention centers were found to have violated human rights standards and laws, including putting children in cages, during the first Trump administration. If passed, the continuing resolution would drastically expand the administration’s capacity to enact its mass detention and deportation agenda—a disgraceful affront to due process.

The cruel and unnecessary practice of detaining families denies vulnerable people their liberty and ability to fairly defend their case for immigration relief. Navigating immigration proceedings is nearly impossible without a lawyer, and those challenges are far greater for people in detention. As of ​January 2025​, ​62​​​ percent of the approximately ​20,200​​​​​​​ people in immigration detention facing deportation in immigration court do not have a lawyer. Detaining families also subjects children to lasting psychological harm. Family detention has been shown to cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, emotional distress, and depression.

Shayna Kessler, director, Advancing Universal Representation initiative, Vera Institute of Justice, said: “The reopening of family detention facilities is the reinstatement of the government putting children in cages—an unnecessary cruelty that people firmly rejected during the first Trump administration. Instead of writing a blank check to the administration to force families into detention, Congress should invest in proven, more cost-efficient alternatives, such as legal representation. These programs ensure due process and help people navigate the immigration legal system while allowing them to work, attend school, live among neighbors, and contribute to the economy.”

Nicole Melaku, executive director, National Partnership for New Americans, said: “As a parent, I know what it’s like to be willing to move heaven and earth for the safety and well-being of my children. Families fleeing danger and seeking a better life are making one of the hardest decisions imaginable; they deserve dignity and due process—not detention. It is unconscionable that Congress may pass a continuing resolution that will directly fund the Trump administration’s plans to jail these loving parents and their children—a cruelty that will once again stain the legacy of the United States for generations to come. Families belong in the communities they call home, free to build safe and stable futures for their children. Congress must get to the business of working toward humane solutions instead of funding cruelty for the sake of political grandstanding.”

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Fairness to Freedom: The Campaign for Universal Representation was launched by the National Partnership for New Americans and the Vera Institute of Justice in April 2022 with a coalition of over 200 organizations and legal service providers. The campaign’s goal is to support the passage of the Fairness to Freedom Act to establish a federal right to representation for all immigrants facing deportation.