MUTUAL AID IMMIGRATION NETWORK: RAPID TRAVEL FUND

Welcome! We are the Mutual Aid Immigration Network (you can read about us, our history, and what we do below.) We are currently raising urgent funds on behalf of individuals and families who the Biden Administration has stranded on the US-side of the US/Mexico border. Along with fellow abolitionist groups like Detention Resistance, we are attempting to raise $10K very quickly. Any amount helps and will go directly to paying travel and food costs for our fellow human beings. Please read below for details.

Title 42 - the racist draconian law that Trump put in place to shut the US borders during the pandemic and which Biden kept in place until this May - has finally been lifted. The resulting policies are now making it intentionally harder than ever for people to enter the United States and apply for asylum.

Thousands of migrants from all over the world are sitting in horrendous camps in Mexico furiously tapping on the US Customs & Border Control App to get an appointment in the United States to be legally processed. The app is riddled with glitches and often crashes, forcing people to wait months to secure a simple and brief appointment with The Department of Homeland Security (DHS.)

The lucky ones who get an appointment, arrive in the United States via bus, get fingerprinted by DHS, and then are literally left ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD in places like Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Maclaren, Texas. With little to no funds, they are then expected to then travel to their families who are located all across the country.

This week we’ve gotten calls from migrants in all sorts of unimaginable situations:

A man from Ghana was dropped off by US Border Patrol in Somerton, AZ which is four hours from Phoenix. Border Patrol agents told to him show a plane ticket to get a “free” ride to the airport or sleep on the streets in AZ in the summer. He was heading to Harrisburg, PA to join a friend who only just arrived in the country who has no car, credit card, or money. We received a call from a couple who had been at the airport in Laredo, TX without food or water or money for 24 hours; they were trying to get to their sister's house in Colorado. And from a family of five staying at a shelter in Tucson and trying to get to Boston. That’s five plane tickets across the country on a day’s notice, who can afford that? In California, people are processed and left stranded in El Centro and Calexico - 2 hours away from the closest airport. Migrants are forced to pay outrageous taxi fees simply to get to San Diego. The ones who get processed in San Diego are then given 48 hours or less to come up with plane tickets or risk sleeping in the streets.

There is no governmental infrastructure in place - it’s chaos. With ticket prices at an all-time high, we are scrambling to assist people who have come to our country seeking asylum but who are immediately made homeless by our government. The shelters throughout California, Arizona, and Texas are overcapacity.

The need is real, intense, and immediate.

We are kindly asking for donations to reach our goal of $10000. Any money you send to us will go straight to purchasing flights and bus fare and meals for migrants stranded by the Biden administration at the border.

Please consider sharing this GFM on IG as well:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtBvKHJu4qi/

Donations are not tax-deductible. MAIN is a mutual aid immigration network and not a nonprofit. Please donate what you can and send this request to your network. Any questions? Feel free to send us a message.

Who are we?

Hi there! We are Barnett Cohen and Daniella Ponet. The Mutual Aid Immigration Network (MAIN) has been in existence since 2017. MAIN is a national hotline for people detained in immigration detention centers across the United States (213-342-1143.) People detained in ICE detention centers call MAIN for legal support, bond assistance, and for advice on how to navigate the intentionally opaque system of immigration courts and laws in the United States. Over the years, MAIN has successfully liberated hundreds of people from the for-profit immigration detention complex. Not only do we offer rapid legal and bond assistance to detained individuals but we continue to support folks who have been released for weeks if not years. To that end, we fundraise for donations for commissary accounts, direct economic support for families of detained or deported individuals, and for people recently released from detention in dire need of cash.