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Message from the Board
Allies,
Please join me in supporting FFI’s first-ever Annual Appeal, "Until Everyone is Free: Celebrating 10 Years!"
FFI marks our ten-year anniversary amidst a uniquely challenging moment in the world and in our fight to abolish detention. Immigration detention continues to expand, despite repeated work by FFI making clear that this abusive system is unnecessary and inhumane. In these dark moments, I source my hope from the tireless work being done by those on the front lines.
Over the past decade, FFI has celebrated countless accomplishments. In the last year alone, FFI has provided human rights monitoring at 69 detention centers, received nearly 40,000 calls from over 105 detention facilities via FFI’s national hotline, and has reunited 34 people with their families through our bond fund. This is a mere sampling of our work and I hope you will join us in reaching our goal of $400,000 as we continue fighting for detained immigrants.
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Finally, it is my pleasure to share some exciting growth at FFI: We are hiring an Executive Director! The right leader in this next chapter will be a passionate visionary who can guide FFI through a racial justice, care-centered, and people-centered approach. Applications are welcome now!
On behalf of the FFI team and the Board of Directors, thank you for your partnership these past ten years.
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We look forward to creating a world without cages, where immigrant communities can thrive and live in freedom.
Sincerely yours,
Grisel Ruiz
Board Chair, Freedom for Immigrants
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Welcome Our New Team Member!
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As the Database & Information Technology Manager, Gillian manages and maintains FFI’s database and technology systems, while growing the functionality of VIANEY, FFI’s proprietary database system used to document human rights abuses in immigration detention.
Gillian is committed to dismantling harmful institutions, and she recognizes immigration detention and other carceral systems in the US as intrinsically tied to the nation’s
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foundation and history in white supremacy and settler colonialism. She believes that abolishing immigration detention and reinvesting in community-driven programs is necessary to end abusive systems and move toward collective liberation.
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Nation Immigration Detention Hotline
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Over 80 volunteers help answer calls on the FFI National Detention Hotline, and between April 7, 2022, through May 11, 2022, our dedicated hotline volunteers surveyed people inside by gathering testimonies about their access to COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. In the month
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of September, Freedom for Immigrants published a fact-sheet analyzing the survey results which found that 30% of all respondents cited one or more issues around vaccine access. The sum of our work reminds us that the only way to ensure people inside immigration detention have adequate access to
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medical care and that they can see their loved ones is to abolish this cruel and inhumane system. People need to be returned to their homes and communities where they can live freely and thrive. This is why we are fighting to FREE THEM ALL!
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Monitoring and Visitation
The nationwide campaign to fully reinstate family and community visitation in immigration detention remains a critical undertaking for the FFI team. In May, following a 2+ year shutdown of visitation, ICE finally responded to community demand and announced it would begin restoring visitation. However, the guidelines ICE issued are confusing and continue to bar visitation in over 50% of detention centers, e.g. the existence of a single COVID-19 case potentially halts visitation in an entire detention center.
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Map of weekly facility status (red, yellow, green) of ICE detention centers across the country as of September 30, 2022. Approximately 41% are green, 47% are yellow, and 12% are red. According to new ICE guidelines, only “green” facilities are required to resume visitation.
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Visitation statuses change week to week. This unfair, chaotic system has resulted in devastating impacts on the mental health of folks inside, barriers to human rights monitoring, and logistical nightmares for anyone trying to visit, not to mention the continued separation of people inside from their loved ones. We’ve issued an explainer in English and Spanish which provides an analysis of the difficulties the new guidance poses and its heartbreaking impact on people inside. Stay tuned for more opportunities to demand the administration fully reinstate visitation.
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Thank you for subscribing to FFI News and Updates! In case you missed last month's Community-Based Alternatives to Detention newsletter you can read it here. Our following newsletter will provide updates on Policy Advocacy. Please take a moment to edit your communication preferences below so we can provide you with the updates you are most interested in. You will receive a separate email to confirm your preferences.
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