Friends statement: immigration policy

American Friends Service Committee
Statement on Immigrant Detention

The Quaker vision of justice is grounded in our core
belief that "there is that of God in everyone" and the
Biblical call to welcome the stranger. Our vision, as
it applies to immigration, draws on years of experience in
international human rights work and with immigrant
communities worldwide. Human migration is a global
phenomenon driven by political, social and economic
considerations that demand not just our attention, but
our humanity and compassion.  We are all God's people, no
matter our circumstances.

And so we react with dismay to the increasing
criminalization of individuals with tenuous legal status
in the United States. In particular, we see the
increasing overuse and abuse of detention as a
demonstrably failed policy and practice. The U.S.
government's punitive focus on arrest, detention and
deportation diverts attention from more compelling human,
civil and labor rights issues and from the complex causes
of immigration. This punitive focus, in its harsh and
capricious application, shatters families and stokes fear
in communities; creates incentives for individuals and
businesses to profit by the incarceration of others; and
shames our highest ideals as Americans and our deepest
convictions as Quakers.

We envision an immigration policy free of imprisonment, a
policy that offers humane treatment to asylum seekers,
refugees, and economic migrants, and that provides for
legal status for undocumented immigrants.

We call for the end to the misguided and profoundly unjust
policy of detention in our immigration system.

Approved by the Board Executive Committee, January 10, 2009