October 2026

This fund is primarily for the immediate needs of our neighbors in Allston-Brighton impacted by immigration detention. Since we’re not a nonprofit, we can be flexible with what help we offer: we’ve used this fund to give people commissary funds while in detention, pay their bonds, help loved ones pay for rent and groceries in their absence, and support with limited legal/application fees. We collaborate with BIJAN (Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network) and work to supplement the funds they offer. We’ve built relationships with many Allston-Brighton families to assess their needs, and we are expanding our network to find more people who could use these funds.

We’re also anchored in our work by the Brazilian Women’s Group, a Brighton-based organization of Brazilian immigrants that supports impacted people throughout Massachusetts. We’ve connected with a large number of people currently in detention and provided them commissary funds. These funds are crucial, as a commissary deposit is one of the only pieces of material support we can give to people being held in detention facilities, where their basic needs might not be met.

We’ve currently spent about $75,000 of the money raised on this GoFundMe and via our neighborhood fundraisers. We are so grateful for every single donation, large or small. We especially encourage people to become monthly donors, because a steady flow of money lets us be more certain about what we can offer to impacted people.

When someone in our neighborhood is targeted, detained, or otherwise harmed by the government’s increasingly cruel immigration policies, the entire community feels the pain. But through community efforts like this fund, we can make sure no one faces these challenges alone.