First Friends of New Jersey & New York

COVID-19 has turned the world upside down.  For those immigrants in ICE detention in northern NJ, their world is now much more stressful.  With volunteer visitation suspended and detainees confined to their cells, many feel frightened and completely isolated.

That's why First Friends of NJ & NY is asking for your help.  We are launching a GoFundMe campaign to provide commissary funds to immigrants in detention in Bergen County Jail, Essex County Correctional Facility, Hudson County Correctional Facility and Elizabeth Detention Center.  At the moment there are approximately 1,200 immigrants detained in New Jersey, and commissary funds will allow them to make phone calls to family, lawyers and friends, and will allow them to purchase critical items. These funds will be vital in providing some comfort in their lives.

Commissary prices in jails and detention centers are notoriously high, and even those detainees that work at the facilities can rarely afford items as the article below states:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/18/11-toothpaste-immigrants-pay-big-for-basics-at-private-ice-lock-ups.html

We know that times are tough right now, but any donation that you make will help suffering detainees who are isolated and nervous as COVID-19 adds a massive layer of uncertainty to their lives.

Thank you for considering joining us in supporting detained immigrants, and please share this campaign with your friends and colleagues.

Sincerely
First Friends of NJ & NY

First Friends of NJ & NY needs your help.  We are a small nonprofit organization that runs the largest and oldest detention visitation program visiting ICE detainees in 4 NJ jails.  While we visit hundreds of detained immigrants annually, we also pick up just-released friends at jail parking lots and temporarily house them until reuniting them with family members across the USA.

Our challenge is that recent changes in immigration laws have increased the number of immigrants released from jails with nowhere to go and with family members far away.  First Friends is spending thousands of dollars per month buying Greyhound bus tickets and providing released friends with cash for travel expenses to reunite them with family members across the USA. 

We need your support to help pay for bus tickets and travel expenses.  Bus tickets run from $200-$600 per ticket, so we need to raise $12,000 to cover transportation costs for the rest of 2019.

Visit our website at www.firstfriendsnjny.org to learn more.

Thank you for your support!

Did you know that Northern NJ is home to 4 ICE detention centers, housing over 2,200 asylum seekers and immigrants?

For the lucky few that gain asylum, the path to safety and stability is more difficult than ever before.  Many of these asylum seekers get released from detention with no local family members to help them.  They have nowhere to sleep and will end up on the streets if we don't help them!  

We are raising money for First Friends of New Jersey & New York, an organization that provides visitation, advocacy and post-release services for asylum seekers detained in NJ.

This campaign will allow First Friends of New Jersey & New York to provide temporary housing to released asylum seekers so that they don't become homeless. 

In 2018 First Friends visited 348 asylum seekers in detention and provided over 120 released asylees with resettlement assistance such as housing, transportation, cash assistance, clothing and other services.

First Friends will use funds raised to: 

1. Pay for bed space offered by local nonprofit partners

2. Rent an apartment and pay for Airbnbs/hotel rooms when absolutely necessary.

Please visit our website at www.firstfriendsnjny.org.  

Any donation will make an impact. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to us.

First Friends of NJ works with detainees and asylum seekers in NJ to bring them hope and dignity. They provide detention center immigrants with services and provisions and seek housing for those released into the community.

Many immigrants are detained indefinitely for months and years with no contact with lived ones or the outside world. When possible financially, First Friends provides these detainees with phone cards to reach their relatives either those they've been separated from here or in the countries they've arrived from.

I'm working directly with First Friends to provide each of the 175 immigrants they work with in New Jersey with a phone card.
Each card is $15. The cards are good for several calls to their families , These immigrants languish in these detention centers with nothing to do all day, they are depressed and hopeless and a call to loved ones - uniting with their family - is a ray of light in their bleak situation.