This pillow represents one of the 34,000 immigrants who is detained on a daily basis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a result of the congressional “Bed Mandate.”

The “Bed Mandate” requires ICE to detain 34,000 immigrants daily to fill beds in a network of more than 250 detention centers. Most beds are in private prisons, owned by companies (CoreCivic, GEO Group, CAA, etc) who also lobby for immigration reform that bolsters their bottom lines. These facilities collectively receive over $2 billion per year for this service, that Congress pays with Taxpayers’ money. This mandate targets innocent lives while pushing the idea that moving from one country to another is a criminal act that should be punished with incarceration.

We envisioned the 34,000 Pillows project with the hope that it could function to resist this system. We create pillows from clothing that has been donated to us by immigrants, former detainees, and their allies. Each pillow is priced at $159 — which equals to the government’s daily cost per detention bed. 100% of the proceeds from sales supports national and local immigration organizations whose efforts are dedicated to restoring human dignity to those formerly detained.

Now we are working in conjunction with Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) to focus our efforts on contributing relief funds to those who are specifically being detained at Adelanto Detention Center in California. Relief funds could be applied to legal fees, bail bonds, or living expenses if a family’s sole income provider has been detained.

We will continue this project until the “Bed Mandate” is eliminated.