Members of Make the Road PA (MRPA) and the Shut Down Berks campaign continue fighting to shut down the family detention center in Berks County, PA. Run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Berks County Residential Center is one of only two in the country where immigrant families with children, often toddlers or younger, are imprisoned after requesting asylum.

In addition to the injustice of locking up asylum-seekers, consider their treatment while detained: Just last week, a six-year-old was diagnosed with the highly contagious shigella virus. She had been ill for weeks. Leaked documents showed that her mother had been seeking treatment for her daughter since December. In response to this mother’s plea for help, an immigration officer said that she should deport herself if she didn’t like the center’s conditions.

After months of coalition work to shut down the center by MRPA and allies, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services revoked the center’s license earlier this year, citing inconsistency in its use of a child residential center license for federal immigration detentions. Immigration and County Commissioners, however, have appealed the revocation—while continuing to hold families with children prisoners.

MRPA and allies organized a demonstration on February 21, the day the revocation would have taken effect. Imprisoned mothers and children joined as best as they could behind the gates, gathering under the watchful eyes of guards, local police, and ICE’s deportation officers. An eight-year-old girl courageously asked to take the mic, bringing the crowd of protesters to tears as she pleaded for her and her family’s freedom.

The partners from Shut Down Berks include the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition and GALAEI. MRPA also had the support of Make the Road New York, Make the Road Connecticut, and Make the Road New Jersey, who sent delegations of their members and staff to the demonstration.

Our partner organizations’ efforts have gained traction: the license revocation, while caught up in appeal, is a significant development and sends a strong message to ICE and the county that locking up innocent men, women, and children seeking asylum is an unjust practice that we intend to shut down.