Keep children out of the England Air Park detention facility.

LaSalle Corrections is set to run a 528-bed facility built specifically to hold migrant children and families -- the same base where our own Executive Director watched people march past a golf course in chains.

As Christians walking the way of Jesus, we reject this inhumane and immoral proposal.

ICE calls it a "staging area." History says otherwise: at similar federal holding sites, children have been detained for weeks, even months.

Alexandria is already the busiest ICE deportation flight hub in the country. This facility would deepen that pipeline, moving children through with fewer safeguards and fewer chances for anyone to intervene.

The England Airpark Authority Board has not yet given final approval. Now is the chance for all of us to come together to stop evil in its tracks.

As people of faith, we believe in the God who says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves." We believe in a Jesus who said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them."

We condemn any plans to hold children at England Air Park and demand that the England Airpark Authority use its power to reject this facility before it opens.

Petition Text:

To: England Airpark Authority Board of Commissioners

We, as members of Faithful America, call on you, the England Airpark Authority, to reject any plan to build or operate a detention facility for immigrant children and families at England Air Park in Alexandria, Louisiana.

This board has not yet given final approval to this project. We are asking you not to.

ICE's proposal to build a 528-bed facility, to be run by a nonprofit arm of the private prison contractor LaSalle Corrections, to specifically hold unaccompanied children and families is inhumane, dangerous, and morally wrong.

ICE calls it a "staging area." History tells us otherwise -- at similar federal holding sites, children have been detained for weeks and months, not days.

Alexandria is already the busiest ICE deportation flight hub in the country. This facility would deepen that pipeline, moving children through a system with fewer safeguards and fewer chances for anyone -- a lawyer, a pastor, a nun, a family member -- to intervene on their behalf.

Children should be protected, not caged. They deserve love, not separation from their family.

It is within your power to make sure these children are not caged.

Our Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Shannon Fleck, visited England Air Park in May and witnessed people march in chains past a golf course in plain view of onlookers. She has called what she saw there evil.

We do not believe this board wants its name attached to what comes next if this facility opens.

Scripture commands: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

We ask this board to choose, while you still can, not to be that hindrance.

Thank you.