Last Thursday, a Mexican federal judge ordered the immediate release of vulnerable migrants from detention centers across Mexico, due to concerns of COVID-19 spreading in such crowded facilities. This important, life saving, move is the fruit of a civil society collaboration that spans the U.S.-Mexico border.

The call for a COVID-19 detention moratorium on the U.S. side of the border has not yet seen such a dramatic response. As civil society scrutiny has grown, there have been significant numbers of detainees released from overcrowded facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere in the U.S., but we are still by no means where we need to be.

There is no question that our advocacy and the evidence presented by civil society has had a big impact on both sides of the border, but there is still lots to do — especially on the U.S. side.

Rather than working to make people safe this week, President Trump has instead deployed a smoke screen of chaos — abruptly issuing executive orders that needlessly suspend migration procedures that have no bearing on the pandemic.

We are grateful to all of you who have helped keep up this fight. Double thanks to all of you who tuned in and brought you questions to our webcasts on the topic in English and Spanish.

We will be doing another short bi-national webcast soon. Please let us know if you’d like to be alerted.

And please, — if you have not done so already — add your signature to our petition.

And finally, please make a contribution so we can keep on making this struggle your struggle.  No one should die in detention,