Immigration & Detention

SAALT’s research on detained South Asian migrants is an inte­gral part of our immi­grant jus­tice work. Since 2014, we have been track­ing the num­ber of South Asians who cross US Bor­ders, as well as their treat­ment in deten­tion facilities. 

​We are com­mit­ted to push­ing for poli­cies that ensure the dig­ni­ty of immi­grants of all sta­tus­es. SAALT is part of a nation­al coali­tion of allies who demand the defund­ing of Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE) agen­cies for their abu­sive prac­tices, account­abil­i­ty of Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS ) agen­cies and agents, and the release of detained migrants. SAALT also helps facil­i­tate a net­work of region­al and nation­al partnerspro­viding imme­di­ate sup­port to com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in detention.

This year we’ve been work­ing along­side local and nation­al advo­cates to sup­port South Asians detained in Texas and Louisiana who have been forced to go on extend­ed hunger strikes to bring atten­tion to their asy­lum cas­es. Col­lec­tive­ly, with these part­ners, which includ­e AVID in the Chi­huahuan Desert, Detained Migrant Sol­i­dar­i­ty Com­mit­tee, Free­dom for Immi­grants, and Deten­tion Watch Net­work, we have been pro­vid­ing sup­port to indi­vid­u­als who have been detained in ICE and pri­vate deten­tion facil­i­ties across sev­er­al US states. Read about our work here.

We also pub­licly doc­u­ment our find­ings on the treat­ment of detained South Asian migrants. Read our report and zine on South Asian Migrants in Deten­tion here.

Learn how you can sup­port detained immi­grants here.

See our com­pi­la­tion of “Know Your Rights” resources for detained immi­grants here.

Read media cov­er­age of the issue below:
Al Jazeera
The New York­er
Pulitzer Cen­ter
BBC
Khabar