Thread by @MigrantFreedom

🧵THREAD: Yesterday fmr nat. security advisor @AmbJohnBolton’s book was released, claiming Trump told Chinese President Jinping to continue building concentration camps for Uyghurs.

It's our understanding that Trump’s @DHSgov also has aided India in expanding camps for Muslims.

This isn't the 1st time the U.S. has exported detention abroad.

The U.S. has funneled money & direct support to Mexico for detention through Programa Frontera Sur (see below). As the U.S. strengthens relations w/ India, India is expanding detention with little public oversight.

On March 25th, Freedom for Immigrants submitted a FOIA to @DHSgov @ICEgov @DHSOIG and #CRCL for any communications or transactions between DHS or DHS component agencies with India concerning India’s mass detention camps for Muslims.

The Citizenship Am. Act was passed by India's parliament in December & Muslims are excluded from citizenship.

Those who can’t prove citizenship will end up in detention camps, including in Assam where a new massive 3K prison is being built for Muslims. bloomberg.com/features/2020-…

Already in Assam, 800+ persons are held indefinitely in 6 detention centers that @migradetention reports are overcrowded & lack medical care.

Since 2016, 29 detained migrants have died, 10 last year. While India has released prisoners, those “declared foreigners” have not been.

There have been protests in India against the Citizenship Am. Act #CAA and reports indicate that the Union Home Ministry are using the #COVID19 nationwide lockdown as a cover for attacking the democratic right to dissent according to @detsolnet

https://twitter.com/detsolnet/status/1265180572877336582

In the U.S., on March 26th @ICEgov emailed us to tell us that our FOIA request on U.S. involvement in India detention was being denied because it was “too broad” as it “did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking” - that same day, we appealed this decision.

In our appeal, we explained that DHS has not provided the public info about how it may be working w/ India. We explained how we narrowly constructed our request & "[T]he identification standard should not be used to obstruct public access to agency records." Bristol-Meyers v. FTC

On April 24th, @ICEgov denied our FOIA. We emailed OGIS who mediates disputes between FOIA requesters & agencies. On June 12th, OGIS said they cannot help. So @ICEgov has not been forced to reveal the responsive info. We also haven't received info from @DHSgov @DHSOIG or #CRCL.

The U.S. government has a history of funding immigration enforcement abroad.

For example, the U.S. pressured Mexico to start Programa Frontera Sur to arrest and detain migrants en route to the U.S. & supported it through training, tech & intelligence. azpm.org/s/39635-progra…

The U.S. is not alone in its imperialist approach to migration enforcement.

@migradetention says the EU strikes deals with actors in African countries to stop Mediterranean migration, e.g. equipping Libyan forces to “rescue” refugees at sea & paying militias to control detention

Immigration detention is a global issue.

While the U.S. maintains the oldest & largest system, nearly every country detains migrants. The U.S. must stop exporting this destructive model and we must educate ourselves on the history of detention worldwide: freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-time…

We are calling on reporters to investigate this issue with us and ensure that the U.S. government is not training or advising India on how to further oppress minorities. #FreedomforImmigrants #BreakTheICE #FreeThemAll #ThereAreAlternatives #AbolishDetention