This Wednesday, the Health Justice team joined organizational partners and directly impacted community members in Albany to urge state legislators to co-sponsor the NY Dignity Not Detention Act (S.7373/A.7099A).

The NY Dignity Not Detention Act will end the state’s detention contracts with ICE, which currently enable county jails to lock up immigrant New Yorkers. With the passage of this Act, it would prohibit new contracts, renewals and terminate existing contracts with ICE, and will close loopholes that allow privately run detention centers. It will finally put an end to the practice of profiting from inhumane detention in NYS and help protect vulnerable New Yorkers from separation from their families and communities.

NYLPI actively works to combat the human rights abuses in immigration detention and has documented numerous serious concerns, including denials of medical care, language access barriers, inadequate COVID-19 safety protocols and more. ICE has continuously failed to protect the health of immigrants detained and prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in these facilities. To read more on NYLPI’s medical-legal-community partnership and efforts around abolishing ICE in New York State, please check out our Medical Providers Network Reports.

Detention centers are inhumane, dangerous and undermines public safety. The immigration enforcement system also enables anti-immigrant policies that disproportionately harms Black and Latino communities. Now is the time to end immigration detention in New York State, help us pass the NYDND Act today!