Hi Everyone,

La Mif’s third annual fundraiser is underway. Last year, we raised nearly $17,000, which we've now entirely spent down, distributed directly to asylum-seekers. We wanted to share a couple of stories about how we used those funds.

Earlier this year, we filed a habeas petition to free a member of our community from ICE detention after he was rearrested. The paperwork was processed while he was on the way to the airport for a deportation flight, forcing ICE to turn the van around and bring him back. A couple weeks later, a federal judge approved that second habeas petition and he is now back with his family and seven children in New York.

Shortly after that, another community member was facing a deportation order after an auto-immune-induced seizure left him in a coma for over three months, causing him to lose most of his memory of his two years in the United States and miss his immigration hearing. Volunteers worked for weeks to recover all of his medical documents from hospitals across the city; gather testimony from his friends and family to write affidavits petitioning his immigration judge to reopen his case; and connect him with another local organization which provides long-term casework for victims of torture. He’s now working in Manhattan, awaiting his judge’s response.

Finally, we used the funds to provide commissary for a community member currently in ICE detention in New Jersey so that he can speak to his wife and kids. As retaliation against his participation in the recent hunger strike at Delaney Hall, he was kept in solitary confinement for days. We continue to work with his lawyers to try and find him a way out of detention as quickly as possible.

All of this in the last six months. We have spent the rest of the funds by supporting asylum-seekers in our network with payments to lawyers to defend their cases so they can avoid detention in the first place, payments for emergency appeals of deportation, paying newly implemented fees for work authorization cards and to replace lost ID documents, and much more. It’s been possible only because when we really needed to pay for something, we could do so. And despite the challenges, we continue to celebrate as a community: gathering for monthly film clubs at Light Industry with free food cooked by EVLovesNYC, sharing stories with our friends in Open School, and dance-battling the night away at LifeWorld for our second annual art show/spring party.

This year, we anticipate needing to pay even higher legal and filing fees as we prepare to help people through their final immigration hearings and as ICE continues to kidnap and imprison members of our community. Your donation will help to free people from ICE detention.

Please donate and share widely to help support our work for another year.

Best,

La Mif