Our Revolution Monmouth County Applauds the Red Bank Borough Council for Passing the Migrant Rights Resolution, Calling on Elected Officials at Every Level to Reunify Migrant Families, End Migrant Detention, and to Afford Families Due Process In Immigration Proceedings

Red Bank, NJ (01/13/21) – Red Bank is the 1^st town in Monmouth County and 8^th in NJ to pass a Resolution calling on its County Commissioners, State Assemblymen and Senators, Governor, New Jersey Congressmen and Senators and the White House to reunify migrant families presently separated in detention centers, to end migrant detention as a practice, and to afford these families meaningful due process in immigration proceedings. Several other townships across the state & county are considering the resolution as well. This is an especially urgent call-to-action due to the pandemic’s huge financial and emotional toll on migrant families, and the deadly spread of COVID-19 throughout crowded ICE detention centers.

The United States has historically served as an international leader in protecting refugees and advocating for human rights. The treatment of migrants and the separation of children from their parents at the border and in the interior of the country is inhumane, illegal, and goes against the United States’ long-standing ideal of upholding and advocating for human rights.

There are more than 2,000 immigrants detained in the state who cannot afford a lawyer, and as immigration arrests rise across the state, guaranteeing due process and access to legal representation has become all the more urgent. Migrant families and their children are detained in unacceptable conditions, in many cases without adequate food, water, or access to necessary hygiene and sanitary products. The unsanitary conditions and lack of access to adequate health care is causing migrant men, women, and children in these detention centers to get sick and seven children have died after being in Border Patrol custody.

 “I came to this country as an immigrant myself, just months before 9/11. Since that fateful September, I’ve been watching with deep concern and growing outrage all the ways in which we as a nation, through failures in our leadership and foreign policy, have dehumanized and terrorized migrants seeking refuge at our shores. We need to shut down the camps, close detention centers, reunite families, free detainees and allow migrants to go through the immigration and asylum process free of persecution. Our Revolution Monmouth County thanks the Red Bank Council for standing in solidarity with the immigrant community,” said Anna-Marta Visky, chair of the grassroots progressive group that backed the Resolution.

Councilmember Kate Triggiano, who introduced the Resolution, said that she will “continue to fight for immigrants rights because until we see massive changes to our broken immigration system there is a hole in the heart of Red Bank. I do not take lightly the trust our community members have placed in us by sharing their traumatic experiences in private conversations, and last night in a public meeting. Detention, deportation, and family separation is a deep part of the American experience for so many Red Bankers and this resolution demands better from our government and elected officials at all levels, starting with our town.”

Ellen Lichtig, organizer with the Immigration Committee of GRBWI, added: “Red Bank is a wonderful and diverse town. We appreciate the Red Bank Council passing this resolution as a formal statement of support for undocumented immigrants and their families. Let Red Bank be a town that stands up for the rights and dignity of fellow human beings.”