In response to the Department of Homeland Security’s recent announcement to review the use of privately-run immigration detention facilities, the Southern Border Communities Coalition released the following statement:

The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) applauds the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to review the use of corporate-run prisons that hold tens of thousands of immigrant detainees. Each year, approximately 400,000 immigrants are funneled into the U.S. immigration detention system. Detention quotas are a key driver of this grim reality, which results in the separation of families, undermines rights to freedom, and subjects people to deplorable conditions that violate human rights’ standards and have even led to deaths in detention.

Sixty-two percent of immigration detention centers are owned and/or operated by for-profit prison corporations. It’s no secret that these facilities are dangerous, inhumane and prone to abuse, which is why the Department of Justice decided to begin the phasing out of private prisons in August of 2016.

We call on the Department of Homeland Security to work expeditiously to finalize its review and to end the use of privately-run immigration detention facilities.