NEW YORK – Following reports indicating the Biden administration is considering reinstating family detention at the U.S.-Mexico border, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization, denounced the possible decision and expressed the dangers of harmful immigration policies.
In a statement, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“By considering the reinstatement of family detention at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden is not only backtracking on his campaign promise to protect immigrants and migrants, but also putting them at increased risk. It would be both shocking and unacceptable for the Biden administration to revive Trump’s inhumane use of family detention. This continues the pattern of President Biden extending Trump-era immigration policy; the Biden administration had previously called for the end of the harmful Title 42 policy, but subsequently acted to expand it, and now has also announced an asylum ban. Politicians must stop using migrants and asylum seekers as political pawns.
“Family detention is traumatic for the families and children who are forced to wait in jail instead of in freedom for their asylum hearings to progress, or otherwise seek protection, and in too many cases leads to separation of families from their children. Only the worst villains in the Torah subject their fellow humans to further trauma in moments of need — from the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, who turn their backs on starving travelers and punish those who help them; to Potiphar, who throws captive Joseph in jail on fake charges; to Pharaoh, who enslaves the Israelites after they come to Egypt to escape famine and drought.
“We have a moral obligation to protect the vulnerable and welcome migrants and asylum seekers with dignity. We call on the Biden administration to stay true to their promise to protect migrant families. T’ruah remains committed to establishing a just and transparent immigration system, rather than a cruel system reliant on discrimination, deportation, and detention.”
About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.