|
Beloved,
In November, our diocese launched an Immigrant Legal Emergency Fund to provide urgent assistance directly to those in need in our worshipping communities. Thanks to your generosity, we have raised over $185,000. More importantly, we have provided nearly $140,000 in emergency grants to some forty-eight individuals and families in seventeen different worshipping communities across our diocese.
I want to share some of how this fund has helped people facing existential threats and fear:
• A single mother in one of our congregations suddenly lost winter heating assistance due to new federal restrictions limiting the availability of even local funds to immigrants. Although she has legal status here, she was barred from receiving assistance. Our diocesan fund has enabled her to heat her home for the winter.
• After an ICE raid to his workplace left him unable to return to work, an immigrant in our community lost a job he had held for almost two decades. Our fund helped him to cover rent during a difficult transition period. He has now found long-term support and has been able to stay in his apartment.
• A South Sudanese immigrant came here as a child and has since built a vibrant life –- studying biotech, raising children, and working as an EMT. Due to a policy change, he was set to lose his Temporary Protected Status and faced deportation to a country of which he has no memory, that is torn by ethnic conflict, and where he would be targeted due to his ethnicity. The Emergency Fund covered the legal fees for his asylum application.
• A Guatemalan immigrant and mother of two faced a crisis when her husband was detained soon after she had given birth to their child. He was moved to a detention facility in Texas, where she has struggled to contact him. Our diocesan fund has covered the legal fees needed to find him and file necessary appeals, while also helping to cover rent for the young mother.
These are only a few examples of the many lives being touched by your generosity. Even on days when the risks faced by immigrants are not on the front page, their needs grow.
So, I ask: are you able to contribute to the Immigrant Legal Emergency Fund?
If you gave before, would you consider making another contribution?
Every gift, large or small, is significant and meaningful. Every gift is an act of welcome and justice in the name of a God who calls us to love our neighbor.
You can give – including setting up recurring payments -- online by using the button below.
| 
