Our mission is to provide comfort and support for people who seek asylum and refuge. Our volunteers connect personally and accompany individuals and families as they navigate challenges such as: immigration court, finding shelter, getting health care, and securing work. We pool resources that support their goals and help them to heal from trauma. We are committed to the truth that every human being is worthy of a safe place to live and thrive.
Thanks to generous Santa Cruz Gives donors last year, we were able to help all of the asylum seekers we accompany pay their legal fees, and secure housing, food, transportation and medical care.
In response to desperate new needs for immigrant legal aid, we will continue to build capacity for deportation defense by subsidizing legal aid for asylum cases of the new neighbors we accompany. We will build an emergency response system for any who are apprehended at check-in or otherwise taken by ICE. And we will extend support to free legal clinics that support other asylum seekers, staffed by attorneys and other volunteers.
We helped organize two free legal clinics for asylum seekers in the past year by pulling together attorney volunteers from the public, private and nonprofit immigration sectors and the community at large. We would like to double this effort. For this, we need more support for screening and preparing applicants, training volunteers, and other tasks. This will still meet only a fraction of need among refugees in our region.
Please join us in reinforcing local capacity for deportation defense.
Two years ago, I stepped onto this land along with my family, our hearts brimming with hope and uncertainty. Today, I stand before you all because of the Welcoming Network. Because of the compassion it extended to us, the courage it inspired in us.
Anonymous
