Shut Down Berks Coalition Continues Their Call to Free Families During COVID-19

BY MELISSA BEATRIZ  & FARRAH RAHAMAN ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

¡Presente! Media documented the Shut Down Berks Coalition’s action held in response to U.S. District Judge Gee’s ruling that children be released from immigrant detention centers by July 17, 2020. 

Learn more about the Shut Down Berks Coalition at its website: 

Pennsylvania is currently home to the Berks County Family Detention Center (BCRC), one of three detention centers for immigrant families, where children as young as two-weeks-old have been incarcerated, and families have been held for more than a year at a time. Berks is the only publicly-owned family detention center in the country.

The Shut Down Berks Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals fighting to close the Berks family prison in Pennsylvania and end the practice of imprisoning immigrant families in the U.S. Members of the coalition include organizers, lawyers, immigrant leaders, and allies.

Families have reported verbal abuse, workers' rights abuses, medical neglect.

*Source: @ShutDownBerksCoalition 

Although the deadline to release families was extended to July 27, 2020, families weren’t released on that day and continue to be detained.

Additional assistance by Farrah Rahaman.