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Dear Friends,
At Rian, we believe a welcoming community is one where everyone has a place. This sense of belonging is something we proudly protect and build together. Our privilege is in working each day in tangible support of this belief, and counting you among our cherished supporters who make the work possible.
Despite the recent federal agenda working to stop many of our new neighbors from feeling welcomed, Rian clients of all ages continue to find permanent belonging here in Boston.
Take Yudith, for example, a mother from El Salvador who connected with Rian in 2022 after becoming a U.S. permanent resident through a domestic violence-based self-petition. Yudith was separated from her son, Jose Gabriel, for nearly a decade while she navigated a complex legal process to gain safety and permanent residency. With hope and persistence, she sought Rian’s help to secure her son’s permanent residency as well.
Rian represented Yudith and Jose Gabriel in a follow-to-join consular process through the U.S. consulate in San Salvador. We submitted many rounds of documentation to multiple federal entities. The process was layered and arduous, and at first the consulate refused to issue Jose Gabriel’s visa because of a misunderstanding about his eligibility.
But Yudith didn’t lose hope, and neither did we. Rian prepared more documentation supported by legal citations, and the visa was finally issued. When Yudith got the news she felt, “As if a big weight had been lifted from my chest. Just happiness.” In May this year, Jose Gabriel arrived in Boston, finally reunited with his mom. “I can’t lie, I cried a lot because my dream had come true,” Yudith said about that moment she saw her son. “A mother just wants to be with her kids and for them to be safe.”
This is how Rian steps in: with critical legal help and deep care to scaffold families’ hope, bringing them back together in every case we can. Our legal expertise, language competencies, and client-focused approach helps community members who have immigrated here find the joyful, secure sense of connection and belonging that everyone deserves.
Yudith now hopes her son will follow in her footsteps by working in the medical field. Jose Gabriel, for his part, is excited to enroll in English classes and explore career options, all with the unwavering support of his mom, of course: “He’s going to study and work and help the family, but the important thing is that he’s here at home with me.”
For Yudith and so many of us, ‘home’ means “being with family.” Families make communities. Communities make a country. Your urgent support now will protect immigrant communities under threat, and make this country the welcoming and inclusive place it aspires to be.
Thank you,
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