100 signatures reached
To: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
End the Detention Death Tax
End the Detention Death Tax - a draconian policy that fails to make funds available to the families of people who die in ICE custody for the return and transportation of their loved ones’ remains.
We urge ICE to alter its Detainee Death policies so that Field Office Directors and the Director’s Office have discretion to authorize payment for the prompt return and transport of the remains of people who die in ICE custody.
It is, quite literally, the very least ICE could do when it fails to keep humans alive.
Why is this important?
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently has no defined limit on the amount of money it will spend to cage the body of a person in removal proceedings.
When one of ICE’s deadly cages claim the life from that body, the limit ICE will spend to return them to their loved ones is $0.
This Death Tax presents grieving family members with a bill alongside the devastating news that their loved one is gone forever. Forcing families to pay for the retrieval and transportation of loved ones is cruel, inhumane, and unnecessary.