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Contact: HELEN MACHADO
(202) 225-1766
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Congresswoman Roybal-Allard Speaks at a briefing hosted by the National Coalition for Immigrant Women's Rights
Washington,
Jun 24, 2009 -
At a briefing sponsored by the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard spoke about the importance of enacting The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, which she authored to strengthen detention standards, ensure that children are treated humanely and expand alternatives to incarceration. The complete text of her remarks are as follows:
“I would like to express my appreciation to the Women’s Refugee Commission, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, the National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and Legal Momentum for organizing this event. I know that you will be hearing from Marlene about her harrowing experiences in detention and from Kathleen about the grossly inadequate medical care available at the Willacy Detention Center in Texas. We in Congress have a moral obligation to address the human costs and the impacts on families and communities of our current detention policies.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of non-criminal immigrants are held in detention. Many of these immigrants are detained for months or years in one of several hundred detention facilities around the country. I introduced the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 1215) to strengthen detention standards, ensure that children are treated humanely and expand alternatives to incarceration. While I have been encouraged by the attentiveness of the new Department of Homeland Security leadership to this issue, administrative changes are not enough—we need a new legal framework for immigrant detention.
Without stronger laws, women like Marlene will remain in the shadows; without better oversight, more immigrants will be denied their rights; without more humane policies, young children will remain behind bars. Thank you for coming today and joining us in the fight to reform our broken immigrant detention system.”
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