Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services

The wall is never going to be built but just in case it is we will build a series of giant escalators that are spaced out a half mile along the wall on either side and if that doesn't happen we'll just give the money to people who care about the well being of human beings no matter where they're from.

The escalators are a metaphor please do not come and investigate me ICE or whoever I'm not really going to build a series of giant escalators it's a joke to raise money for this good cause. To be clear all the money goes to RAICES a very worthy immigrant legal services charity and there is no way for me to access it even if I wanted to.

Thank you for donating and please subscribe to Hell World .

From RAICES on what the funds will do:

"Donations will help us hire lawyers to defend unaccompanied children who have no guarantee of counsel otherwise, like those in Tornillo; they'll help pay for know your rights trainings in detention centers so people can navigate the asylum process; they help our general mission of providing free and low-cost counsel to migrants in detention centers generally; they help fund the refugee resettlement program, like enrolling kids in schools; they help hire support and advocacy staff to make videos highlighting what migrants go through to raise awareness; they help fund missions to Tijuana to help those in the migrant caravan, like the LGBTQ contingent we're providing housing and legal services to."

Hola! I am Juan Torres and I am a hairstylist from a border town Cd. Juarez/El Paso, TX and  now I live in San Antonio, TX. For me, family means everything; I have three lovely nephews who still live in Mexico. Unfortunately, they cannot come visit me in the U.S. because they don’t have a visa or green card to travel into the country. Thankfully, their case is almost over and we can soon be together!  They are my life and I know I’d be lost if something happens to them!

Recently, I found out about a lot of kids that are detained at different camps across Texas. What saddens me the most is that they have the same American Dream that my nephews do. The difference here is that when families fail to cross over in search of the American dream, all kids lose track of where their families are which leaves them alone without protection.  They are trapped in a camp and they need help getting attorneys to fight for their freedom and to help them be with their families again ! 

 Want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money to benefit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and any donation will help make an impact.  I thank you for any contributions as this cause means so much to me.  

For more information about the organization RAICES click here

More information about Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services: RAICES is the largest immigration organization in Texas. Serving asylum seekers, immigrants, families in detention, and providing education and support to our community, RAICES has staff in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Washington, D.C. RAICES closed over 70,000 cases in 2016 and provided shelter to 6,000 asylum seekers.

10-year-old friends, Lily & Lauren are hosting a Mexican Hot Chocolate and Churro Stand to Raise Funds for Immigrant Families. All Funds Raised Will Help RAICES Texas Legal Defense Fund to Reunite Families Seeking Asylum at the Border.

Here's why...

This week, the family of a 7-year-old child in Austin, TX set up a hot chocolate stand to raise funds to support building the wall between the US and Mexico. He raised $1400 onsite, and $5K with additional online donations. Berkeley's 10-year-old Lily Ellis could not accept this. She knows that families are still separated - with children being caged, illegally adopted and parents unable to be reunited.

On Sunday, 10-year-old Lily and her best friend Lauren (also 10) will host a Mexican Hot Chocolate stand to raise funds to reunite families separated at the U.S.--Mexico border. The sale will be hosted in front of Berkeley's historic Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse.

Who are these young activists?

LILY is a member of the GRAMMY-nominated kids hip hop crew, the Alphabet Rockers , who just sold out 400-seats at the Freight & Salvage with an all-ages concert last weekend.

LAUREN'S family runs Jenny's Churros . They'll be serving churros and Mexican hot chocolate, along with a variety of donated sweets and community bake sale - all for donations to support RAICES, whose mission is to "help separated families, detained families, unaccompanied minors, and others who are seeking asylum in the United States." They will be joined by the rest of the Alphabet Rockers, as well as 11-year-old organizer Kaia Marbin (who organized "Families Belong Together" rally at Lake Merritt in June 2018, attended by 2,500 people).

Why are they doing this?

LILY says: "I appreciate what he did and liked his idea so I’m gonna do it too and try to raise even more money to push back on that wall."

Lily’s MOM, Zoe says : "I appreciate this young man for sparking more action from my gamily. For reminding me of the real urgency to reunite families. I may not agree with his cause , but I can support his choice to act on his beliefs and do more to take more even action on my own beliefs."

LAUREN says: "This is important to me because no child should be separated from their parents or loved ones especially when they come to our country for a better life. This is not what we stand for and everyone should be given a chance to live peacefully."

Lauren’s MOM,Jenny says: "It’s important to give our children a vehicle to express themselves, support their activism, and raise morally and socially just leaders."

Press/Interviews: Beth Blenz-Clucas [email redacted]
Volunteer: Contact Zoe Ellis

More information about Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services: RAICES is the largest immigration organization in Texas. Serving asylum seekers, immigrants, families in detention, and providing education and support to our community, RAICES has staff in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Washington, D.C. RAICES closed over 70,000 cases in 2016 and provided shelter to 6,000 asylum seekers.

Nightscape Press is putting together an emergency charitable anthology for RAICES called Horror For RAICES. RAICES is a major player in the fight for immigrant and refugee rights in the United States.

Horror For RAICES is edited by Jennifer Wilson and Robert S. Wilson and all net proceeds from the book are going to RAICES. If you donate $10 or more via this fundraiser and email us at [email redacted], we'll reply with an advance uncorrected eBook copy of the book! 

The eBook officially releases on Amazon on December 25th, 2019 with the trade paperback edition coming shortly thereafter.

Our aim for this GoFundMe is to raise at least our goal before the official release but we'll keep it open regardless so people can continue to raise money for this incredibly needed charity. Please help spread the word!

Here's the full TOC for the anthology:

1. An Aviary in the Atrium by Brooke Warra
2. At the End of the Pier by Gabino Iglesias
3. House of Windows by Paul Tremblay
4. The Sea Hoax by Farah Rose Smith
5. Ganesha Consumes by Jon Padgett
6. 245 to New Xebico by Todd Keisling
7. Butcherbird and Cuckoo: A Flavescent Exhibition of Ponceau Emotions by Fiona Maeve Geist 
8. Vox Populi by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
9. The Two-Wheel System by Matthew M. Bartlett
10. Fire (Fables of the Reconstruction) by Elizabeth Hand 
11. Still Life With Extinct Animals by Jeffrey Thomas
12. Play With Me by Ramsey Campbell
13. All the Windows and All the Doors by Damien Angelica Walters
14. A Nervous Sleep by Max Booth III
15. There is a Bear in the Woods by Nadia Bulkin
16. Mercury by Livia Llewellyn
17. All the Ways to Hollow Out a Girl by Gwendolyn Kiste
18. The Town Manager by Thomas Ligotti
19. It's Always Summer in the Tower by Jessica McHugh
20. We Were Made of Love Once by Christopher Ropes
21. Soul of Me by Laird Barron
22. ζῆ καὶ βασιλεύει by Sonya Taaffe
23. And, in the End, a Reckoning of What I Have Become by Paul Michael Anderson
24. The Figurine by Christopher Slatsky
25. Drone by Gemma Files
26. After the Vanishing Days by S.L. Edwards 
27. Les Fleurs Du Mal by Allyson Bird
28. The Goose Girl by Poppy Z. Brite 
29. Emperors of Jinn by Usman Malik 
30. A Children's Tour of the Facilities by Kurt Fawver
31. Pumpkin Harvest by S.P. Miskowski

REUNITE AN IMMIGRANT PARENT WITH THEIR CHILD

Clear Flour Bakery and Cafe Madeleine are raising money for RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and all donations make a HUGE impact by directly funding bond for a detained immigrant parent so they can be reunited with their child.  We are hosting Rise for RAICES, a Summer Block Party at Lamplighter Brewery in Cambridge on SUNDAY AUGUST 18th from 2:30-8:30 with a huge bake sale with donations of pastries from all of Boston's best pastry chefs and James Beard award winners, a beer garden by Lamplighter, cold brew by La Colombe, delicious tacos and quesadillas from Chilacates, ice cream, games, prizes, a silent auction with amazing prizes like Red Sox tickets (really good seats) and a baseball autographed by Jackie Bradley Jr. as well as gift cards to all of Boston's best award-winning restaurants. All proceeds will go to RAICES and we hope you can make it to the party! However, if you cannot make it, you can still donate here and help us make our goal of donating a total of $20,000 to RAICES between the block party and this fundraiser to help reunite immigrant children with their families.

Please consider donating just $10 and any amount goes directly electronically to the non-profit RAICES.  The number of immigrant children separated from their detained parents has reached an all time high, some reports are as high as 12,800. Currently there is NO plan to reunite families and the more time that passes, the less likely it is that these children will be correctly identified and reunited with their families.  

RAICES has been working with some of the most vulnerable members of our society to ensure they receive advocacy and fair legal representation. RAICES directly funds bond to allow parents to reclaim their detained children. They will ensure legal representation for every separated family and every unaccompanied child in Texas' immigration courts. 

Currently, there is no plan to reunite the more than 2,300 families already separated. Children continue to live in incarcerated conditions and this is unacceptable. In today's political environment, RAICES' work becomes more important than ever and they need the support to move fast. These families need legal representation, counseling, and other crucial services that RAICES will be able to provide directly because of these funds. 

More information about Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services: RAICES is the largest immigration organization in Texas. Serving asylum seekers, immigrants, families in detention, and providing education and support to our community, RAICES has staff in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Washington, D.C. RAICES closed over 70,000 cases in 2016 and provided shelter to 6,000 asylum seekers.

In 2016, my friends and I put together a fundraiser on Crowdrise that raised 2,000 for the ACLU by getting fanartists, fic writers and fans together, and I’d like to see if we can do something like that again.

RAICES is the largest immigration organization in Texas. Serving asylum seekers, immigrants, families in detention, and providing education and support to our community, RAICES has staff in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Washington, D.C. RAICES closed over 70,000 cases in 2016 and provided shelter to 6,000 asylum seekers.

Friends,

Lee and I are raising money to benefit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and any donation will help make an impact.

RAICES does a lot of important  work to help asylum seekers, separated immigrant families and children in detention.

If you're appalled  by the for-profit cruelty happening in the camps, this is one way to help.

Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause. (All donations go directly to RAICES.)

- Lee & Macon

More information about Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services: RAICES is the largest immigration organization in Texas. Serving asylum seekers, immigrants, families in detention, and providing education and support to our community, RAICES has staff in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Washington, D.C. RAICES closed over 70,000 cases in 2016 and provided shelter to 6,000 asylum seekers.

Judith and I cannot believe our baby girl Zadie is turning ONE on August 30! As we celebrate the gift of who she is and reflect on the joy of being a family of 3, we are still burdened by the disheartening reality of so many families that have been separated at the border in our country.

As we will be filled with joy in celebrating Zadie’s 1st birthday together as a family, we want to do our part in bringing that kind of hope and joy for what other families deserve: To be together.

We are choosing to partner with Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a non-profit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families and refugees in Texas. RAICES has served as a model and leader in this work of reuniting families, advocating for the vulnerable and fighting systems of injustice.

We’d love to invite and encourage you to join us and consider supporting the labor of love RAICES is doing to reunite children and parents.

https://www.raicestexas.org/

#ReuniteEveryChild
#FamiliesBelongTogether

Standing together with families,

Judith, Aaron and Zadie

We are a group of friends who are distraught by the events of today's political climate. The children separated from their families at the US/Mexico border need help.

RAICES is an organization with a focus of just that. As their website explains:

RAICES is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas.
Founded in 1986 as the Refugee Aid Project by community activists in South Texas, RAICES has grown to be the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas. With offices in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, RAICES is a frontline organization in the roiling debate about immigration and immigrants in the world. As an organization that combines expertise developed from the daily practice of immigration law with a deep commitment to advocacy, RAICES is unique among immigration organizations. A diverse staff of 130 attorneys, legal assistants, and support staff provide consultations, direct legal services, representation, assistance and advocacy to communities in Texas and to clients after they leave the state.

https://www.raicestexas.org/about/

Today, I'm turning 30 - and I'm so grateful for my life. This birthday made me reflect on my 20s, as well as what was important to me 10 years ago. Ten years ago, I was serving refugees and immigrants in Richmond, VA as an ESL teacher and community organizer. These individuals and families changed the course of my life. 

They showed me the universality of compassion.
They showed me the depths of my own heart.
They showed me the resilience of the human spirit.
They showed me that my liberation, and our liberation, is bound up together.

Today, I feel the same way. And today, there are children that are being kept in cages and/or forcibly displaced in my home country. The legal fees to even start to undo these tragic separations are $1500+ ... just to help one individual get bail, reconnect with their family, and begin their journey to the freedom and peace they so deserve.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Most of these families are fleeing from violence and war and injustice. I know this because I live in Latin America. They're not in the USA to take our jobs or threaten our livelihood... as much as they're on our shores to reclaim the life and freedom they deserve. Having lived, served, and worked in Latin America for much of the past 10 years, I can say that these "people" — members of our human family — are crossing the border because WE CROSSED THEIRS FIRST. The United States has had a long, covert, disruptive history of Latin American politics that has produced corruption, inequity, and poverty to serve our economic interests. Want more info? Please message me and let's have a conversation.

This isn't fair situation. 
Because it never was.

HERE'S WHAT I DO KNOW:
These are children,
these are our children, 
BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "THEIR" CHILDREN.
Because these chidren are our collective future.
We're writing the future, right now. 

SO PLEASE JOIN ME IN MAKING A $30 FOR 30 DONATION
Yes - there are many issues going on in the world, and much good to celebrate too. I would be so humbled and full of gratitude if you would celebrate my birthday by sharing the gift of peace and freedom.

YOUR DONATION WILL GO TO 
RAICES , a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas.

With gratitude for all that You truly are,
Kelly

Like all of you, our hearts have been shattered by the tragedy that has taken place on our border over the past several weeks. We are a company run by moms and dads and above anything, we believe that Families Belong Together. Earlier this week, our CEO, John Foraker shared his thoughts on the issue and urged other business leaders to take a stand. (bit.ly/WhereAreTheCEOs)

As a company of parents, we are not satisfied by Wednesday’s executive order to stop family separation because we believe it does nothing to address the needs of previously separated children and babies. Additionally, we believe it only replaces family separation with indefinite family detention. It’s reported that at this very minute, there are nearly 2,500 children separated from their parents and this trauma will likely cause long term health and emotional effects. Now is the time to rally around these thousands of detained families who were seeking a better and safer life for their children.

Today, Once Upon a Farm is committing a $10,000 donation to RAICES (Refugee And Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services) Family Reunification and Bond Fund. In addition to our donation, we will match every donation made, dollar for dollar, up to $15,000. This money will go towards helping immigrant parents pay their bonds, usually in the range from $5-10K, to be released and reunite with their families. Funds will also support parents and children who need legal services as they move through the court system to seek asylum.

We hope you will consider donating to this worthy cause to help reunite children and babies with their parents. Now, more than ever, we must remember that families everywhere deserve compassion, safety and justice.

With Gratitude,

The Once Upon a Farm Family

bit.ly/ofarmKeepingFamiliesTogether