Many of us are feeling some combination of despair, outrage, and shock at reports of the conditions at the U.S. southern border. It’s devastating to learn that our government is separating children from their families, cramming people into overcrowded detention cells, and preventing refugees from accessing basic necessities like food, soap, and clean clothing. If you’re asking yourself what you can do to protest the inhumane treatment of individuals and families seeking asylum in the United States, here are some actions you can take right now.


Call your representatives

If you’d like to make your voice heard, 5Calls.org is an excellent resource. Once you enter your location, 5 Calls will tell you who to contact, how to contact them (you can dial directly through the 5 Calls website or app), and what to say.

Here’s one of the scripts I used to call my representatives:

Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from Cedar Rapids. I’m outraged and appalled by the reports of abuses of detained immigrants, from massive overcrowding to denial of necessary medical care to children. I urge Senator Chuck Grassley to demand a robust investigation of immigration enforcement practices and detention conditions, deny additional funding to ICE, and allocate adequate funding to immigration courts to ensure timely processing of asylum applications.


Thank you for your time and attention. IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: Please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied.

Share information

Use social media and similar tools to spread the word about the abuses taking place at border detention facilities. Consider sharing these reports from reputable sources:

[New Mexico State University professor Neal Rosendorf] described it as “a human dog pound”—one hundred to 150 men behind a chain-link fence, huddled beneath makeshift shelters made from mylar blankets and whatever other scraps they could find to shield themselves from the heat of the sun. “I was able to speak with detainees and take photos of them with their permission,” Rosendorf said in an email. “They told me they’ve been incarcerated outside for a month, that they haven’t washed or been able to change the clothes they were detained in the entire time, and that they’re being poorly fed and treated in general.”


The agents take them in their wet clothes, at first, to the “hielera,” the “icebox,” a refrigerated building, a large processing center, where they had to try to sleep on the concrete floor or sit on concrete benches under mylar blankets, prodded by agents all night and day, deliberately kept awake. Bathroom breaks are frequently not granted, or not in time, so both women and children often soil themselves. The prison-like detention was an attempt to persuade these immigrants to turn back before they even reached a credible-fear interview with an asylum officer. It was also a message to those who were still trying to cross the border.

During the week of May 6, 2019, we visited five Border Patrol stations and two ports of entry in the El Paso area, including greater El Paso and eastern New Mexico, as part of our unannounced spot inspections of CBP holding facilities. We reviewed compliance with CBP’s Transport, Escort, Detention and Search (TEDS) standards,1 which govern CBP’s interaction with detained individuals, and observed dangerous holding conditions at the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center (PDT) Border Patrol processing facility, located at the Paso Del Norte Bridge, that require immediate attention.

Yes, that last link is an official government document detailing conditions at a federal border patrol processing facility. It includes photos of overcrowded cells (with detainees literally body-to-body), as well as evidence that personal belongings and other effects are being taken from individuals and thrown into dumpsters.


Respond to people who are arguing that “concentration camp” is the wrong term to use

Let them know that George Takei, who spent time in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II, considers these facilities concentration camps.

As does Mike Godwin, the originator of “Godwin’s Law” (“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”). This time he believes the comparison is accurate:



As does Anna Lind-Guzik, in her Vox article I’m a Jewish historian. Yes, we should call border detention centers “concentration camps.”


Applying the term “concentration camp” to the indefinite detention without trial of thousands of civilians in inhumane conditions — under armed guard and without adequate provisions or medical care — is not just appropriate, it’s necessary. Invoking the word does not demean the memory of the Holocaust. Instead, the lessons of the Holocaust will be lost if we refuse to engage with them.

If that doesn’t get you anywhere, try to turn the conversation towards what’s going on at the camps, not what we should call them. To quote Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

Donate to RAICES

RAICES is a nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. The organization is actively working to help people, especially children, detained at the U.S. border.

Here’s what RAICES is reporting about the detention centers:


Right now in McAllen, Texas hundreds of migrants are locked up in what are akin to disaster relief camps the day after an earthquake. Families are cramped together, porta-potties and mylar blankets are strewn across an industrial wasteland. Cleaning facilities appear non existent and families are forced to wait outside throughout the day in sweltering heat (89 Fahrenheit / 32 Celsius). If that isn’t enough, a 2-year-old baby boy from Guatemala died this week after being “apprehended” by armed security forces at the border. This is the fourth child who’s died in government custody in the last 6 months. The conditions in which immigrants are detained and the way in which they are being mistreated are unprecedented.

That article was published on May 16. Since then, at least one more child has died in government custody.

Participate in marches, rallies, and organized protests

As of this writing, there is no nationwide campaign to march against the atrocities taking place at U.S. detention centers. However, future marches and protests seem likely, whether organized at the local level or nationally coordinated.


Keep your eyes out for organized protests, and take time to participate. We’ve got a guide to help you protest safely and legally, as well as a student’s guide to walkouts and protests for high school students who want to know their rights.

Lastly—don’t let this story fade back into the news cycle. Continue to call your representatives, keep sharing news from reputable sources, attend protests if possible, and start getting to know your local, state, and federal elected officials and their positions on these crucial human rights issues. That way, when it comes time to vote on whether to keep them in office, you’ll know what to do.