The success of advocates and activists in shutting down the child detention facility in Tornillo, TX led a small group of us who were involved in those efforts to say “What’s next?”. 

We knew the fight was far from over.  This fight is a commitment, a long-term investment in humanity.  We came together the week after the last detained child left Tornillo, and at that meeting we, as a collective, chose to make that commitment.

 

The building of the Coalition to End Child Detention- El Paso, was a process involving intense discussion and strategizing to ensure that our areas of focus and actions are aimed at not just disrupting the system, but completely changing it.  We believe in a vision where migrant children are no longer exploited by a dysfunctional system. We intend to achieve this through research, courtroom witnessing, legislative advocacy, community education, and acting as a strategic and coordinated force in holding contractors, and government entities and officials accountable. 

 

Children deserve to be safe and loved, not labeled as criminals and incarcerated.