People of Tumblr, we’re throwing up the Bat Signal.
Though this Administration has vowed today to sign an executive order that would end the separation of families at the border stemming from its “zero tolerance” policy, we must continue to apply pressure and do our part. Families should have never been separated in the first place.
Here are five ways that you can help:
1. Call your Senator and let them know that immigration reform is still needed. Call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senator’s office.
2. Donate to organizations that are providing support to immigrant families being held in detention centers all over the country:
- The Florence Immigration Project – The Florence Project is providing free legal and social services to migrants being detained in Arizona.
- The Texas Civil Rights Project – Lawyers in Texas have banned together to fight for “equality and justice in and out of the courts.”
- ACLU of Texas Border Rights Center
- RAICES Bond Fund – This fund provides money to release parents from detention centers so they can look for their kids.
- CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project – CARA provides legal representation for families in detention centers.
- KIND – Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) provides legal representation for unaccompanied minors in detention centers. They’ve also provided other ways for you to help oppose family separation here.
- CARA Pro Bono Project – Help alleviate the cost of housing for volunteer lawyers, as well as sending coloring books to those children in detention centers.
- Refugee Caravan – Donate what you can to help detained immigrants make phone calls to their families and lawyers.
3. Contact the Immigration Justice Campaign if you, or someone you know, are fluent in Spanish and can assists lawyers at the border over the phone as an interpreter.
4. Contact Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and volunteer your services as a Spanish-speaking interpreter or as a lawyer for those parents who have been sent to the state of Washington without their children.
5. If you’re a lawyer, law student, paralegal or Spanish-speaking interpreter, contact the Dilley Pro Bono Project for a week-long shift as a volunteer in Texas.
Let’s do what we can to right this wrong because children and families should never have to suffer these kinds of irreparable trauma.