There are roughly 38,000 people currently being detained in ICE camps across America—that’s per The Washington Post, which also noted, in an article published earlier today, that while the rest of the country shelters in place, the detainees in the 130 or so facilities in question are, by default, unable to self-isolate in turn. Conditions in the camps were bad before a global pandemic with terrifyingly low barriers to transmission set in; in the current environment, they’ve been called out by a number of observers as a possible full-blown humanitarian crisis in the making.
That’s the message being broadcast in the above video from advocacy group Never Again Action, which features Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar narrating a call to action asking for an outcry in response to the current situation. The focus, specifically, is on putting pressure on state governors, who have a lot of latitude when it comes to the status of camps operating in their states, and who have the added benefit of not being, well, the current Commander-In-Chief, in terms of having fully functioning senses of shame. In a statement accompanying the video, Sugar explained why she got involved with the movement, one of her first notable public acts since Steve Universe Future wrapped up last month:
Our current situation is exposing the cracks and the cruelty of our American institutions. As a Jewish American, this cruelty is too familiar to bear. Innocent lives are at stake if we don’t act immediately to release detainees from the dangerous conditions of the ICE camps. As a member of Never Again Action I’m hopeful that together we can help guide the inevitable changes that will result from this pandemic to center around human rights. But to do so, we absolutely must act now!
[Note: Eric Thurm, who co-wrote the video for Never Again Action, is a regular freelancer for The A.V. Club.]