Dear ,

President Trump plans to supercharge Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to execute his mass deportation campaign. And we know from past experience that when ICE is supercharged, the communities most impacted are Black immigrants and immigrants of color. Both local police and immigration police target immigrants of color, who often face the double punishments of the criminal and immigration legal systems. Our fight to protect immigrants is a fight for racial justice.

So today, we’re launching our end of year giving campaign with the goal of raising $100,000 by December 31.

Your contributions will ensure we can:

• Fight back against devastating deportations with legal strategies that protect people’s right to stay with their loved ones.

• Train attorneys and advocates to defend immigrants against ICE policing.

• Push for stronger state and local protections to ensure that New Yorkers—regardless of their status—can live free from fear of deportation.

• Challenge the dehumanizing narratives that feed anti-immigrant policies.

We need your help.

Donald Trump’s rise to political relevance was born out of the racist birther lie. The narrative tapped into existing prejudices that question whether Black people and people of color truly belong in the U.S.

Yesterday, we learned that Tom Homan, who has said he would target people with criminal legal system contacts first, will be appointed to a new “border czar” position. Homan was one of the architects of the family separation policy and has suggested that U.S. citizen children should be deported with their immigrant parents.

The Trump administration represents a deep rejection of the civil rights advances of the last sixty years. The administration has endorsed thinly veiled policies of racial exclusion and family destruction in the name of public safety and national security.  This is a rallying call for all of us committed to standing with immigrants to resist mass deportations.

To date, the United States has been unable to reckon with and fully reject the false premise that some people don’t have the same inherent dignity and worth as everyone else. As we grapple with the election outcome, the country must also grapple with the deep shame of being, so far, profoundly unsuccessful in shaking that history.  

We are fighting to expose the insidious messages that some people are disposable. Respect for every individual and a vision for the future in which immigrants have the support they need to thrive drives all of our work. And we are thankful that you are with us in this mission.

When you support IDP, you’re supporting:

• Crucial legal support to immigrants and their attorneys through our free hotline and attorney support services. We help community members and legal advocates navigate the complex intersection of criminal and immigration law. We provide:

  • Confidential, practical support to people making difficult decisions while trying to remain with their families and communities in the United States.

  • Free access to experts on the complexities of the crim-imm system for immigrants and attorneys providing free legal services.

• Partnerships with criminal defense attorneys to provide early interventions that prevent deportations. IDP works directly with criminal defense attorneys, who are often the first and only line of defense for criminalized immigrants striving to remain in the US with their families and loved ones. We will provide individualized advice to public defenders in New York City and ensure that the public defender community and those working primarily with criminalized immigrants have a voice within the broad immigrant justice movement.  

• Actionable rights-based community education materials based on years of researching and documenting that tactics ICE uses to target immigrants for deportation. We have developed a wide range of Know Your Rights materials for community members and hosted trainings for advocates, organizers, and community leaders providing rights-based education. We will update these materials as new information emerges and work with partners to track trends in ICE tactics.

• Defense and expansion of immigrant-protective policies, focusing on disentangling local agencies from ICE, advocating for clemency, and supporting non-citizens in the state criminal legal system. We collaborate with grassroots groups, public defenders and immigration legal advocates, and large policy organizations, providing leadership and technical support where it’s needed most.

• Challenges to dehumanizing and criminalizing narratives that feed anti-immigrant policies. IDP closely tracks dehumanizing and criminalizing language embedded within political narratives about immigrants and works to challenge harmful news coverage. Our policy advocates and the Comm/Unity network will work with allied elected officials and advocates to counter these stories, which both feed anti-immigrant policies and wage a hostile psychic war against their subjects.

• Litigation to narrow the reach of harsh immigration laws. IDP monitors federal court dockets, develops and tracks legal defense strategies for immigrants facing deportation as a result of a criminal conviction, and litigates precedential cases. We increase our efficiency to make a difference by intervening strategically through co-counseling, providing technical assistance, organizing litigators, and appearing as amicus in consequential cases. We have a track record of striking down harmful deportation precedents and enshrining legal protections through court decisions.

• Legal resistance to harmful changes to existing interpretations of the immigration law. IDP has strategically developed arguments barring retroactive application of harsh legal interpretations. We will use these to limit the impact of harmful changes to the law.

Here’s how your can help:

IDP’s expertise is critical in the fight for immigrant justice, and right now, we need your help to continue this vital work. Help us raise $100,000 by December 31 to support our programs in the year ahead.