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Immigrant Detention and Family Separation is increasing
We are seeing a modest increase in the number of people allowed to present themselves at the border and begin the process of applying for asylum. Recently, many have been willfully stranded by Border Patrol agents, left without adequate food, hygiene, or medical care, and made vulnerable to cartels. In the last month, two children, Anadith Tanay Reyes Alvarez (age 8), and Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, (age 17) died in Border Patrol custody. Detention and indefinite imprisonment are being used as a threat against those seeking protection and safety. Fathers and adult males are being separated from their families at the border; some of them are deported and others are detained. In the last week, we have noticed an increase in the number of newly arrived asylum seekers in immigration detention in California. Three hundred asylum seekers are being detained in the Desert View facility in Adelanto, for example. The use of immigrant detention isolates, separates, traumatizes, and deprives people of basic care. Also, it undermines people’s efforts to pursue their asylum requests and immigration proceedings, which are much easier to accomplish outside detention.
It doesn’t make the news, but asylum seekers are arriving every day
The news media tend to focus on the latest crisis– the planes or busloads of asylum seekers and new immigrants being shipped to California. However asylum seekers and new immigrants are slowly arriving every day. Many are reuniting with family members who are helping them to resettle. Some arrive without knowing anyone and need assistance. Each week, new arrivals call our office seeking help, housing, or accompaniment. Our partners at respite centers along the US border are asking us to help, by resettling a family further away from the border region. We anticipate that this need will increase, and we will need your help to respond.
What you can do:
1) Make sure your city or county has a plan to receive an influx of newly arrived migrants and to provide for respite care and longer-term needs in coordination with local faith, legal, and service providers. Contact your local elected officials to find out. Organize and prepare your community to be ready to volunteer when needed. This may look like providing meals, clothing, or short-term respite shelter in your home or house of worship.
2) Provide accompaniment and a longer-term welcome: IM4HI is organizing volunteers and accompaniment teams who can walk with a newly arrived person or family without current support for the first 6 months. Please read more about how our Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Teams work and contact Kelly Younger, NEAT Manager, (kyounger@im4humanintegrity.org), for more information or to volunteer.
3) Be a housing host to provide safe shelter and stability: While emergency responses may be able to provide respite shelter for a few days, some new arrivals need longer temporary or transitional housing. IM4HI is seeking to create a pool of housing hosts (private residences or congregational spaces) to provide temporary housing at below-market rent. Please contact Nadia Tavera Medina, NEAT Coordinator, (ntavera@im4humanintegrity.org), for more information and models of how this works.
4) Advocate for long-term justice: Continued advocacy from people of faith is needed to restore and create protections for everyone seeking safety. Together with 500 organizations, IM4HI recently submitted a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta calling on him to investigate and support immigrants who were recently transported to Sacramento by certifying visa applications to protect them from deportation.
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Demand the Biden Administration enact a fair and humane asylum system (not the current restrictive policies) and create a coordinated welcome for asylum seekers and immigrants, with due legal process, the ability to work, transitional and affordable housing, legal representation, medical care, and opportunities to thrive. Take action through this link.
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Call on the Biden Administration to redirect the $25 billion spent annually on immigration and border enforcement and invest in expanding housing, resources, and community support to address the root causes of immigration and increase the well-being of all communities.
5) Visit the Calexico/Mexicali border with IM4HI and provide support to asylum seekers detained in Adelanto. Contact Hilda Cruz, hcruz@im4humanintegrity.org.
We appreciate your support, your feedback and questions, and other suggestions of how we can collectively respond to this inhumane situation and live out our values of generosity as we build beloved community.
In Solidarity,
The IM4HI Team
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Additional Links:
Read this article How To Seek Asylum (Under Biden’s Asylum Transit Ban) to better understand the current not-so-easy asylum process.
To help with those recently arrived in Sacramento, please reach out to volunteers@sacact.org or https://bit.ly/sacactmigrantsupplies
Article by Rev. Deborah Lee on Migrant Buses: The Crudest Face of a System Built to Exclude
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