Channeling outrage
Legal defense funds are helping detained immigrants regain their children.
Americans didn’t just raise their voices in outrage after President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy pried apart families of migrant asylum-seekers who entered the country illegally. They also opened their wallets.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of their benevolence was RAICES, a Texas-based nonprofit that has provided legal assistance to detained immigrants for more than 30 years. Thanks to a Facebook fund-raising campaign in June, RAICES collected more than $20 million in just two weeks to help reunite separated immigrant families. Giving to an IRS-recognized charity like RAICES is a good way to channel outrage, constructively.
RAICES, an acronym for Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, has offices in Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio. The agency wasn’t even aware of the Facebook campaign until the California couple that started it gave them a call. Charlotte and Dave Willner said they were motivated by the now-iconic photo of a crying 2-year-old Honduran girl watching her mother being searched by a border patrol agent in South Texas. They hoped to raise $1,500 and collected more than $20 million from a halfmillion donors.
Although the Honduran mother and her young daughter were never separated, their photograph sparked anger in many Americans who thought of the hundreds of other crying children and their parents who were torn apart without knowing when they would ever see each other again. At last count, Trump’s crackdown had separated more than 2,500 children from parents, mostly Central Americans fleeing unimaginable violence.
RAICES will use the Facebook money and other donations to help bail out accused detainees and defend them in immigration court. The latter means hiring more attorneys to join the 50 lawyers already on the organization’s staff. RAICES also is getting offers of pro bono help from lawyers across the country. San Antonio RAICES staff attorney Kate Mullins says that will free more money to pay defendants’ bonds.
Making bail is a crucial step in reuniting children with their parents. Some immigrants have languished in detention for months because, unlike in criminal court, there is no limit on how long a defendant can be held for trial in a federal immigration court. Bail is also higher for defendants in immigration court, with a minimum of $1,500, while bond for some charges in criminal court can be as low as $50.
RAICES isn’t the only nonprofit helping detainees. The Fronterizo Fianza Fund, which has applied for taxexempt status from the IRS, has been helping detained immigrants in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. The fund was started last year by a grassroots group in El Paso called the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee. In addition to posting bonds for defendants, Fronterizo Fianza is helping pay detainees’ bills to purchase items from commissaries and make telephone calls.
Michael Rosen, president of a charity consulting firm called ML Innovations Inc., advises would-be donors who want to help detained immigrants to research organizations before making a contribution and make sure their electronic donations are being made securely. Rosen recommended visiting websites such as Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) and Charity Watch (www.charitywatch.org/home) to make sure contributions are being made to a credible organization that will spend your money as you intended it to be spent.
It’s good to know Americans don’t have to sit on their hands waiting for action by a moribund Congress and a president who seems to have no moral compulsion to end the devastation to families suffering under this heavyhanded immigration policy. People can speak out, demonstrate, and donate to generate change. And when the time comes, they can vote for like-minded people who will overhaul America’s outdated immigration laws, and hopefully, prevent this kind of cruelty from ever be perpetrated again under the guise of national security.