Advocacy and Outreach

Story Project: Letters to a Detainee

• Letters to a Detainee booklet

In 2009-10, with funding from the Arizona Humanities Council, the Florence Project collaborated with two volunteers to create a multimedia story project to amplify the voices of immigrants detained in Arizona through recorded interviews and a small book publication. The result is Letters to a Detainee: Immigration Detention in Arizona. Please download the booklet in pdf form for outreach purposes and visit the project’s website to hear voices from detention. To receive a hard copy of the booklet, e-mail us at firrp@firrp.org.

Detention Watch Network

The Florence Project co-founded the national Detention Watch Network (DWN) in 1997 and serves on its Steering Committee. DWN is a coalition working in support of, and in service to, immigrants in detention and at risk of detention. Standing in solidarity with immigrants, DWN members work to change the U.S. detention system so that all who come to our shores receive fair and humane treatment. Visit the DWN website for resources relating to immigration detention, to view maps of detention facilities across the country, and to get involved.

Unaccompanied Children in Border Patrol Custody

Over the last several years, the Florence Project has collected data relating to the treatment of unaccompanied children in Border Patrol Custody by interviewing new arrival children in Arizona. In the summer of 2009 two Project interns released a report summarizing these findings, and an issued a fact sheet for outreach.

For more information, see the following resources:

• Fact sheet 2009: English | Español
• Report: “Seek Protection, Enduring Prosecution: The Treatment of Unaccompanied Children in Short Term Immigration Detention” (August 2009)

More Resources on Immigration Detention

• Fact sheet: “The Math of Immigration Detention”