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New York Dignity not detention
New York Dignity Not Detention Sign-on letter
To the New York State Legislature:
For years, New York has been complicit in the incarceration of immigrants, resulting in the separation of families and terrorizing of communities. It is time for our state to stop its collaboration with the federal government’s attacks on migrant New Yorkers and pass the Dignity Not Detention Act to end detention contracts between ICE and county jails, correctional facilities, and all government facilities across the state.
The undersigned support passage of the DND Act as a critical step toward ending immigration detention in New York State and nationwide. If passed, the bill would prohibit localities within New York State from entering into new or expanding existing contracts with the federal government for the purposes of immigration detention and require localities with existing contracts to execute their termination clauses, getting our state out of the business of immigration detention.
As of April 2, 2026, when the most recent data was posted, the New York State sites detaining immigrants were Allegany County Jail, Broome County Jail, Nassau County Correctional Center, Niagara County Jail, and Orange County Jail, in addition to two federally operated sites: the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center and the Buffalo Federal Detention Center. However, there are 76 jails, detention centers, and other sites across New York State where ICE is permitted to detain immigrants. As of that same date, April 2, 2026, these sites held a total of 1,086 people (209, excluding federal sites)—up from 623 statewide (79, excluding federal sites) on February 8, 2025, a year earlier.
The Trump administration is tearing apart the fabric of our communities through its attacks on our neighbors, coworkers, co-worshipers, friends, and loved ones, people who have come to this country, and to our state, seeking refuge and opportunity.
In its efforts to sow fear and suppress dissent, the Trump administration has made ICE the largest law enforcement agency in the country, with a budget larger than the Bureau of Prisons, the FBI, and most militaries in the world. With Congressional approval of a 400% increase in ICE’s annual detention budget in FY2026, the administration has ramped up state violence through
- Expansion of detention: reopening old sites and proposing new “mega centers” to hold up to 5,000 people (including one in Chester, NY, to hold 1,500)
- Mass deportations: to notorious sites, like the CECOT maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and to third countries where the migrants have no ties and are subject to extreme punishment
- Expedited removal (removal before an immigration judge hears the case): began at courthouses in spring 2025; people most at risk are those who entered US without permission or papers and who cannot prove residence for more than two years
- ICE/CBP arrests, assaults, and now murders: in workplaces, schools, homes, and in the streets, smashing people’s car windows and dragging them out or snatching people when they leave their homes to take out the garbage
Conditions in immigration detention have always been inhumane. During the peak of COVID, people held in ICE detention in New York State reported widespread failure by staff to adhere to basic public health protocols. People detained at Orange County Jail reported that guards frequently did not wear gloves or masks, and that they had inadequate access to hygienic materials, like soap and clean water. At the same time, ICE and jails created quarantine protocols that not only limited access to legal resources and visits from friends and family, but also kept people locked in cells for 23.5 hours a day — essentially solitary confinement. At all times, people held in ICE detention in New York systematically raise concerns about rotten food, lack of heat, and medical neglect—as well as racist harassment and abuse from guards and staff. New York must divest from ICE detention to keep our communities healthy and safe.
In many ways, New York State is a leader in protecting and defending immigrants’ rights. However, we are falling behind. Legislation to end ICE contracts has passed in California (SB 29, AB 103), Washington (SB 5497), and Illinois (HB 2040), Maryland (SB 478), and New Mexico (HB9). New Jersey passed a similar act in 2021 (A5207). It is past time for New York to join these states, protect our migrant communities, and stop supporting the authoritarian policies of the current regime by contracting with ICE.
Assembly Member Karines Reyes (AD-87) and State Senator Julia Salazar (SD-18) introduced the Dignity Not Detention Act to prohibit New York government entities from entering into or renewing, immigration detention contracts, and require them to end existing detention contracts with ICE.
We, the undersigned, urge the New York State legislature to pass the Dignity Not Detention Act immediately, and end immigration detention contracts between ICE and New York county jails, correctional facilities, and all government facilities across the state once and for all.
166 CURRENT SIGNATORIES
- #IamNegrx Troy, NY
- Adelante Student Voices
- Afrikana
- ALAA
- Alianza Agrícola
- Amnesty International USA – New York Refugee and Migrant Rights Task Force
- Appellate Advocates NYC
- Asociacíon Colectivo Vida Digna
- Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys – UAW Local 2325
- Association of the Legal Aid Society – UAW Local 2325 NYC
- Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (UAW Local 2325), NYIFUP Practice, Immigration Law Unit, The Legal Aid Society NYC
- Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Long Island Long Island, NY
- Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
- Black and Pink NYC
- Black Diaspora Liberty Initiative
- Brandworkers NYC
- Bridging Communities and Culture Together, Inc.
- Bronx Defenders Bronx, NYC
- Bronx Defenders Union The Bronx, NYC
- Brooklyn Community Pride Center Brooklyn, NY
- Brooklyn Eviction Defense Brooklyn, NY
- Cabrini Immigrant Services of NYC NYC
- Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) New York State
- Catholic Charities Community Services NYC + New York State
- Catholic Migration Services NYC
- Center for Constitutional Rights NYC
- Center for Popular Democracy NY and National
- Central American Legal Assistance
- Central American Refugee Center NY
- Centro Corona Corona, Queens, NY
- Centro Legal de la Raza
- Churches United for Fair Housing Brooklyn + Queens
- Circle Keepers
- Citizen Action of NY
- Citizen’s Committee for Children of New York
- Columbia County Sanctuary Movement NY’s Capital Region (Columbia County)
- Columbia Students for Intersex Justice
- Columbia White Coats for Black Lives NYC
- Common Cause NY
- Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist NYC
- Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton
- Cornell Anti-Detention Alliance Ithaca, NY
- Cornell Law School Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic Ithaca, NY
- Critical Resistance NYC, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Portland
- DANCE/NYC
- Decolonize This Place NYC
- Detention Watch Network National
- Dignity in Schools Campaign NY
- DRUM: Desis Rising Up and Moving NYC
- East Harlem Outreach Partnership East Harlem, NYC
- Emerald Isle Immigration Center Woodside, Queens
- Envision Freedom Fund NYC
- Families for Freedom NYC
- FLX Rapid Response Network Geneva, NY
- Freedom For Immigrants National and New York
- Freedom To Thrive National
- Garifuna Community Services Bronx, NY
- GOSO – Getting Out & Staying Out NYC
- Grace! An Episcopal Mission Lyons, NY
- Granny Peace Brigade NYC
- Greece Ubuntu Rochester, NY
- Greenpoint Hunger Program NYC
- HALT Solitary NYC
- Hands Off Hudson Valley/Monroe Indivisible
- Housing Justice for All NYC
- Human Impact Partners (HIP) National with headquarters in Oakland, CA
- Immigration Advocates Network National
- Immigrant ARC Albany + Brooklyn, NY
- Immigrant Defense Project
- Incarcerated Nation Network NYC
- Indivisible Brooklyn NYC
- Indivisible NY Congressional District 16
- Inwood Indivisible
- Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America Ithaca, NY
- Jackson Heights Immigrant Solidarity Network Queens, NY
- Judson Memorial Church, NYC
- Justice for Migrant Families Buffalo, NY
- Justice Strategies Brooklyn, NY
- Labor-Religion Coalition of NYS
- LatinoJustice PRLDEF NYC + Long Island, NY
- Legal Action Center NYC
- Legal Aid Society
- Legal Aid Society of Nassau County
- Legal Services Staff Association NOLSW/UAW2320 NYC
- LES Food Not Bombs NYC
- Llegamos NYC (Helping Immigrants Thrive, Inc.)
- Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition Long Beach, CA
- Long Island Immigration Clinic/Sisters of St. Joseph
- Long Island Latino Teachers Association
- Long Island Social Justice Action Network Long Island, NY
- Love Wins NYC
- Lower Hudson Valley DSA
- Make the Road NY
- Mekong NYC
- Met Council on Housing NYC
- Miami Chelo Foundation
- Mid Hudson Valley DSA
- MinKwon Center for Community Action
- Mixteca Organization NYC
- MPower Change NYC
- Muslim Community Network
- National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) NYC
- National Writers Union
- Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center Newburgh, NY
- Newburgh Resists, Indivisible
- New Immigrant Community Empowerment Queens, NY
- New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice
- New Sanctuary Coalition
- New York Civil Liberties Union NYC
- New York Doctors Coalition NYC
- New York Immigration Coalition NYC
- New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) NYC
- New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) NYC
- Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Hudson Valley, NY
- NYC Against Segregated Healthcare (NYCASH)
- NYC Democratic Socialists of America NYC
- NYSYLC NYC
- NYU Law Immigrant Rights Clinic NYC
- Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity/Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth Convent Station, NJ
- Palestinian Rights Committee Albany
- Papales Para Todos CA + NY
- Parole Preparation Project
- Physicians for a National Health Program New York Metro Chapter
- Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts
- Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College Brooklyn, NY
- Port Chester Immigrant Defense Westchester, NY
- Prison Families Anonymous Long Island, NY
- Progressive Doctors National
- Queer Detainee Empowerment Project NYC
- Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network
- Queer Reparations Collective
- Rapid Defense Network NYC
- Refuge America
- Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP New York State
- The Remedy Project
- Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast (RAISE) NYC
- Ridgewood Tenants Union NYC
- RocUbuntu
- Riverside Church NYC
- Rochester Rapid Response Network Rochester, NY, and surrounding areas
- Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow Rockland, NY
- Rural & Migrant Ministry Cornwall On Hudson, NY
- Safe Horizon NYC
- Sanctuary Troy Campaign Troy, NY
- Saratoga Immigration Coalition
- Street Vendor Project, Urban Justice Center NYC
- Suffolk County Legal Aid Attorneys Association Suffolk County, NY
- SURJ Buffalo Buffalo, NY
- SURJ NYC New York City
- SURJ Westchester Westchester County, NY
- Survived & Punished New York New York
- Survivors of the System NYC
- Susan E. Wagner High School
- Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network Syracuse, NY
- TakeRoot Justice
- Terra Firma/Bronx Health Collective, Bronx, NY
- Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition Ithaca, NY
- Trans/Queer Community Fund
- Troy Sanctuary Campaign Troy, NY
- United Auto Workers Region 9A
- UnLocal NYC
- Wilco Justice Alliance Williamson County, TX
- Worker’s Justice Project NYC
- Workers Center of Central New York Syracuse, NY
- Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
- Youth Justice Network