I was inside an ICE detention center asking questions

Friends,

Earlier this week, we stopped at an ICE detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, run by GEO Group. GEO Group is a private company that is funded with our tax dollars and investors’ money, and their treatment of immigrants should be receiving a lot more national attention.

When voters head to the polls in 26 days for Election Day, we have to make sure this is top of mind. If we don’t ensure checks and balances in Congress, the atrocities in ICE centers will become worse.

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I spoke with a man named Phineas who is being held in the Baldwin detention center. He came to this country from Haiti as an asylum seeker. He’s followed every law, but they’re holding him anyway.

He’s one of tens of thousands of people this administration is detaining who did nothing wrong except come here exactly the way the law said to and then have the misfortune that the people of this nation voted in Donald Trump.

I stood in front of that detention center thinking about how we got here. How could it be that voters chose a candidate and Congress openly promising mass deportations? That’s a very uncomfortable reality, and it’s why this work we’re doing can’t wait. And we’re running out of time to do it.

It’s why we’re traveling the nation screening our Who’s the We? documentary answering this very question.

It’s why we’re doing the outreach and holding the discussions, speaking directly to voters.

What we’re seeing is hope. That doesn’t help Phineas right now, which is why every single one of us needs to do our part in the run-up to Election Day in 26 days.

But I want to share something with you. Someone on our team has been texting with their family member who’d voted for Trump. But this week, that family member texted back after hearing about all we’re doing and said that if they get to meet James Talarico, to please tell him he voted for Trump before, but now he’s donated to the Talarico campaign!

He added a couple of laughing emojis, which I take to mean he didn’t expect to be writing that sentence.

This is how minds and hearts change. It happens through one patient conversation at a time.

It’s also why the next few days look the way they do. 

Jerrad Christian, a candidate for the common good running to represent Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, signed the Faith, Hope, and Love bus yesterday.

Tonight, we’re at Hilliard United Methodist Church in Ohio for a faith, politics, and common good training for voters who are done watching Christian Nationalism speak for their faith. 

Tomorrow morning, we’re praying outside the DHS building in Pittsburgh, and that evening we’re showing Who’s the We? in Philadelphia. 

Doing all of this takes a team on the ground, and that costs money. With this weekend ahead of us, your gift of any amount decides how much of this we can do — and we can’t thank you enough.

Your gift of any amount will be matched today. So whatever you give goes twice as far!

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In this together,

Doug

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