Ways to help migrant families

Many Americans, dismayed by treatment of migrants at the southern border and immigrants nationwide, are looking for ways to help. Nonprofit organizations are doing everything from providing legal representation to children who have been separated from their parents to bonding out asylum-seekers to reunite them with their children; providing food and shelter to immigrant families; and engaging in advocacy and education efforts.

The Communities Foundation of Texas, the community foundation which serves areas where the border crisis is unfolding most immediately, has compiled the following list of organizations mobilizing to support children who have been separated from their parents as well as other migrants and asylum-seekers at the Texas-Mexico border:

• Annunciation House shelters families who were detained and separated on the El Paso/Juarez border.
• Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services offers a full-service immigration legal aid clinic serving low-income immigrants and refugees in the southwestern U.S.
• The Human Rights Initiative of North Texas provides free legal services to immigrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. and immigrants who are victims of violence.
• Immigrant Justice Now is working to provide supplies, like bus tickets, Pedialyte, shoes, prepaid cell phones and underwear, to immigrant families and children.
• Immigrant Families Together works to bond out asylum seekers and reunite them with their children. They also provide food to families and government and foster-agency approved housing to expedite reunifications.
• Justice for Our Neighbors provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrant individuals and families in Texas.
• Save the Children is running Child Friendly Spaces in two transit centers so that kids have a safe place to play and begin to recover from the trauma they have experienced. Trained volunteers read, play music and do art projects with the children, while their parents can rest and prepare to travel on to their sponsor family.
• RAICES (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) provides free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children, families and refugees in Texas. Its Families Together Fund supports legal representation and comprehensive case management services to migrant families and its Unaccompanied Children’s Fund ensures that unaccompanied minors at the border have legal representation in court.
• Texas Civil Rights Project provides legal services for detained and separated parents during their immigration proceedings.
• The Children’s Immigration Law Academy has pro bono attorneys representing children in immigration-related proceedings. It’s also providing specialized training to legal service providers and volunteers who are serving unaccompanied immigrant children.
• The Thanks-Giving Foundation is taking donations to help with the Oak Lawn Methodist Church Respite Center. The center is where some of the overflow asylum seekers are being sent from El Paso while on route to their families and sponsors in the U.S.
• The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is accepting donations which will go toward providing more child advocates for immigrant kids inside the detention centers and to accompany them to immigration proceedings.

Additionally, on the national level, the American Civil Liberties Union is spearheading advocacy efforts. The Immigrant Justice Corps recruits and trains legal advocates to work in the field of immigrant justice.

New Hampshire is home to many New Americans, some immigrants and some refugees. Local nonprofit groups are working (and working together) to support New Americans and to safeguard their rights and civil liberties:

• Ascentria Care Alliance and the International Institute of New England provide a wide range of services to welcome, assist and educate refugees and help them to find employment.
• The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire engages in advocacy and education and provides some legal representation.
• The American Friends Service Committee engages in advocacy and education on behalf of immigrants’ and refugees’ rights.
• The New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees and Welcoming New Hampshire engage in advocacy, promote leadership capacity among immigrants and refugees and support the integration of immigrants and refugees into the social fabric of New Hampshire communities.
• The Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success and other groups provide assistance, training, resources and opportunities that promote self-sufficiency.