Support Free Migration Project’s Work This Holiday Season

Support Free Migration Project’s Work This Holiday Season

At Free Migration Project, we provide legal services to undocumented immigrants and advocate for more open immigration policies. As 2021 comes to a close, we are asking for your support to help us provide critical services and support to undocumented immigrants. 

We are a small but growing organization and have set an ambitious target of $20,000 for our “Support Freedom of Movement” fundraising campaign. Will you help us reach our goal by making a one-time donation or becoming a sustainer of our work? [ultimeter id=’52826′]It has been a busy year at FMP! Here is what we have been working on: 

  • Update (12/22/2021): We welcome DHS’s announcement last week of a process to formally identify and recognize stateless people in the U.S. and implement protections for them. We have been part of an advocacy effort on this issue led by United Stateless. (United Stateless co-founder and executive director Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough is a client of FMP’s.)
  • In May of this year, FMP hired a new staff attorney, expanding capacity to provide high-quality legal representation to low-income immigrants. FMP currently represents approximately 100 clients, with a focus on cases involving asylum, unaccompanied minors, DACA, family petitions, and victims of trafficking or domestic violence.  
  • Working with the National Sanctuary Collective, FMP fought for the liberation of immigrant leaders who took refuge in sanctuary churches in Philadelphia and around the country, who were able to walk free earlier this year. We were part of a lawsuit against ICE which resulted in termination of the policy of issuing large retaliatory fines against outspoken immigrant leaders implemented under the Trump administration.
    Update (12/22/2021): We welcome the administration’s “protected areas” policy issued in late October, which expands and strenthens the existing “sensitive locations” restrictions on ICE raids and arrests at churches, hospitals, and schools. We believe that the work of the National Sanctuary Collective contributed to this policy change.  
  • FMP co-founded the Shut Down Berks Coalition and the Family Liberation Abolitionist Network (FLAN) to close immigrant family prisons in Pennsylvania and around the country. We continue to work for the permanent closure of the immigrant prison in Berks County.
    Update (12/22/2021): News broke recently that as of December 10, ICE had removed all families from the last of the remaining family detention centers in Texas. We endorse Detention Watch Network’s call to finally close the door on family detention and not simply reinstate it under the guise of “reception centers” as the administration has proposed.  
  • FMP is leading a campaign to end medical deportation, the practice by which hospitals transport seriously ill or injured immigrant patients out of the country to avoid the cost of treating them. Last year, FMP worked with community partners to prevent the medical deportation of a Philadelphia community member by a local hospital.
  • FMP hosted the fourth annual Open Borders Conference in November to provide a forum for discussion of a truly borderless world. 

See more details about our work in 2021 in our Annual Report.

Free Migration Project depends on your generous support to continue our work. This holiday season, we hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us fight for human rights. Thank you!

–Adrianna, Alex, and Dave