Child & Family Detention
The U.S. is creating an expansive network of unregulated and harmful influx and intake detention sites for children that fall outside of international human rights mandates to protect children and refugees and is recycling harmful policies to separate and detain families.
Tsuru for Solidarity was born out of outrage at federal policies separating children at the border and the ongoing incarceration of immigrant children and families, particularly on sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated over 80 years ago.
We are organizing with impacted communities and building cross-community coalitions to close these sites and be the allies that we needed during WWII. Together we say NO MORE U.S. CONCENTRATION CAMPS! KODOMO NO TAME NI! / FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN!
Mission & Goals
Educate
Educate the public, especially the Japanese American and Asian American community, about child and family detention today and historically; Lead workshops to build the skills needed to lead direct action campaigns to close child and family detention sites; Decolonizing and shifting the language and messaging around model minority dynamics in order to interrupt anti–Black racism, and “innocence” and “good citizen” narratives
Advocate
Coordinate Japanese American camp survivors and descendants to lead federal legislative advocacy to close the camps and end policies of child and family detention; Educate Congressional leaders on child and family detention to develop accountability and oversight and push for appropriations cuts.
Protest
Lead direct site fights at child and family detention centers such as Dilley Family Residential Center (Dilley, TX), Ft. Sill Intake Site (Lawson, OK), Ft. Bliss Intake Site (El Paso, TX), Berks Family Residential Center (Leesport, PA), and Greensboro Piedmont Academy (Greensboro, NC); Incorporate intergenerational civil disobedience, cross-community healing ceremonies, ritual and cultural practices and cultural art forms into direct actions at detention sites; Support anti-deportation campaigns for families in sanctuary.
Build Solidarity
Lead two national coalitions to end child and family detention (National Child Detention Coalition and the Family Liberation Abolitionist Network) and build bridges between national and local coalitions; Grow and sustain relationships with directly impacted communities to close local detention sites and end child and family detention policies; Support groups involved in refugee resettlement; Address ongoing and inter-generational trauma through Healing Circles for ourselves and other impacted communities.
This video series highlights the connections between Japanese American incarceration survivors and current survivors of detention centers and features an intergenerational cross-racial dialogue of survivors of state-sanctioned violence.
JIZO Newsletter
Tsuru for Solidarity is committed to supporting migrant children and families detained at the US/Mexico border. Stay up to date with our efforts in the Jizo newsletter. Jizo is a Japanese deity, protector of children, who emanates sweetness, calm, and benevolence.
Jizo Vol 1. Issue 5
Jizo Vol 1, Issue 4
Jizo Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 3
Wins
- Successfully blocked the proposed detention site for 1,600 children on the former Japanese American incarceration site at Fort Sill, OK
- Terminated the Yuba County Jail ICE contract, the last of its kind in California, as a part of the Yuba Liberation Coalition;
- Closed the Berks family detention center in Leesport, PA as a part of the Shut Down Berks Coalition.
News & Events
Greensboro’s Gilded Cage
2022 End of Year Report Child and Family Detention Direct Action
