To: President Donald Trump

No more kids in detention!

As mothers, daughter and sisters, we are deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis at our southern border, and we ask that you put the safety and well being of these women and children at the forefront of your policies. We call on you to provide safe, appropriate housing for the children and families coming across our southern border. Detention centers, in which the children and families are currently being held, are NOT safe, appropriate housing. Holding families and children in detention centers must stop immediately and no new family detention centers should be opened.

Why is this important?

We’ve heard the stories and seen the haunting images of children forced to sleep on the floor of grossly overcrowded detention centers.

Tell President Obama that children and families don’t belong in detention.

Unaccompanied children as young as four years old are fleeing violence in Central America. Mothers with young children are risking everything to find safety. Nearly two thirds of the children making the dangerous crossing would qualify for international protection due to the extreme violence and abuse they faced in their home countries.

The journey is dangerous. Women and girls face threats of sexual violence. Many are arriving pregnant as the result of sexual assault and rape in their home countries or on the journey.

Unfortunately once they arrive, too many of these children and families are being held in overcrowded Border Patrol facilities that are not appropriate places for children and families to stay. And now the President wants to build new detention centers to detain families with children.

We must provide safe and appropriate shelter for children and families coming across our borders, not lock them up and deprive them of their rights.

President Obama’s proposal to address the humanitarian crisis includes nearly $1 Billion dollars in new funding for enforcement and detention at the border. We cannot continue to pour funding into militarizing an already secure border and building new family detention centers.

Tell President Obama no new money to detain families and children.

Thank you for standing up for refugee children and families today.