Identifying the best path forward in jurisdictions with intersecting campaigns for immigration reform

When a jurisdiction has campaigns for both universal representation and abolishing detention, the following questions may help identify the best path forward.

  • What do the people who are or were locked up in the detention center—and their loved ones—think about closing the facility and the impact that would have?
  • On average, how many people are held in this detention center and for how long? How robust are the legal services people receive while they are detained?
  • What are the conditions inside this detention center?
  • Where are the people held here likely to be transferred? What kind of access to counsel exists at that facility?
  • If this detention center closes, what can be done to provide continuity of legal representation to people who end up being transferred?
  • Are there legal avenues through which to argue for release—rather than transfer—of the people detained at the facility?
  • If the detention center exists within a local jail, are there other organized initiatives (beyond the immigrant rights context) to close the jail itself? What is the likely impact on those initiatives if there is a push to keep the jail open?
  • What are the potential longer-term political consequences of closing this detention center, locally, but also for the broader immigrant rights movement?