Immigrant Justice Advocates Launch “Paper Dolls to Free Families” Campaign

The last month has seen protests in and outside of the Dilley Immigrant Detention Center in South Texas with a clear message: end family detention. Now, the National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention is ramping up that effort by encouraging people to send paper dolls with messages of hope and solidarity to lawmakers to show their support of ending family detention.

Since the Trump Administration reopened Dilley, the only family detention center in the US, there have been outbreaks of measles, protests led by people inside, raids on children’s dorms, and the deportations of sick children as young as two months old.

The National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention reported that families in detention lack access to adequate clean drinking water and nutritious food and as a result, sometimes experience dangerous weight loss. They are also likely to experience inadequate access to medical care during prolonged detention. Additionally, children face disrupted education when they are detained and it threatens their ability to remain at their grade level or graduate.

In a press release, they also stated:

“Detention is harmful for everyone, but it is particularly traumatizing for children. Detention takes a toll on children’s health and compromises their development. Studies have consistently shown that placing children in detention, under any conditions, is a traumatic experience causing lasting harms that persist long after they are released, such as developmental delays, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal ideation. Many children in detention also experience sleep disturbances and decreased appetite, and they display regressive behavior changes that demonstrate distress, such as self-injury or withdrawal.”

Despite this, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to open three new family detention centers with a combined capacity to hold more than 5,700 people, according to the coalition.

Recognizing that families deserve to live freely without fear in a place they call home, not in unsafe facilities, the coalition launched a national campaign to send paper dolls to lawmakers in an effort to show them how many people support an end to family detention. They are encouraging people to participate by gathering with family and community to write messages and color the paper dolls while also educating themselves about family detention.

Upon the campaign launching, Amnesty International reported:

“Paper Dolls to Free Families is a national campaign inviting people from across the country, including educators and students, religious and community groups, and even children currently detained by ICE, to create paper dolls with messages and colors of hope, solidarity, and love.”

The coalition is asking people around the country to send the paper dolls with the messages to their lawmakers, or if possible, directly to Amnesty International by March 4 so they can deliver it to members of Congress in person.

In addition to showing Congress the support that exists to end family detention, the action is also aimed at urging them to pass legislation such as the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which would ban private detention in the immigration system as well as end the use of family detention, solitary confinement and mandatory detention.

Trudy Taylor Smith, senior administrator of Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, said in a press release:

“The paper dolls campaign is an expression of Americans’ grief, anger, and deep concern about ICE’s cruel treatment of children and their parents in detention, and it sends a clear message to Congress that their constituents expect them to take swift action to free these families. No child should ever be detained.

Immigration detention is always inhumane, and the measles outbreak inside the immigration prison in Dilley only adds to the risks children and their parents are already subjected to while being detained, including extreme stress, hunger, poor nutrition, medical neglect, and unsanitary conditions. ICE has consistently failed to provide safe conditions or adequate health care for families in detention. The only humane response to the current crisis is to release families from Dilley, close this dangerous facility, and end the policy of family detention once and for all.”