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Help Edelsa's son pay for asylum legal fees

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Friends and family, 

A dear friend and community leader, Edelsa Barrios, needs our support. She's requesting help with paying legal fees for her son, Raul's, case to receive asylum to live in the US. In late November he was detained at the border and is now awaiting his trial to determine his eligibility for asylum.

In the small town in Guatemala where they're from, the gangs 'MS-13' and '18' are a daily threat. Two years ago they attempted to extort his brother and murdered him when he refused to pay. Two months ago they murdered his best friend for the same thing. After being targeted and shot at himself, Raul feared for his life and sought asylum in the US.

Edelsa is an amazing mother, wife, community leader, and owns a local business, El Rosal. She is a professional seamstress and does alterations as well as original clothing. I, like many of you, met Edelsa in 2010 when working at IMPACT Silver Spring. I knocked on her apartment door to invite her to a community meeting. She showed up the next day and offered to teach neighbors how to sew. Since then she created El Rosal and grew it into a profitable business. And, on the side, continues to offer free 8-week long classes to neighborhood women teaching them how to sew. She is an active member of CASA de Maryland and advocates for immigration justice.

I know there are so many awful things in the world, and worthy ways we could be pulled to help. Please consider helping our friend Edelsa in this moment of incredible need. They are victims of a cruel and inhumane immigration and foreign policy. Thank you so much for contributing toward her family's legal fees. She is still mourning the death of her eldest son, and is heartbroken at the possibility that her remaining son will meet the same fate if he is deported and forced to return to Guatemala. This is a small thing we can do to have a huge impact on her, days before Christmas. 

Love,
Sebastian

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    Sebastian Brown
    Organizer
    Frederick, MD

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