Also, save the date for our 10th Anniversary celebration in LA.

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Save the Date!

You are invited to join us in Los Angeles on the evening of April 27th, 2023 to honor and celebrate 10 years of fighting for abolition.

FFI’s work, from the early days of building power with the Visitation Network, has expanded immensely alongside the immigrants rights movement, connecting our crucial visitation work on the ground to other efforts, like our national hotline and policy advocacy.

This April, we’re commemorating our past and looking to the future by honoring those who have contributed their voices and leadership to the movement, celebrating the strides we’ve made along the way toward our collective liberation, and preparing for the challenges ahead with renewed energy.


We hope you can join us! We look forward to being together in community with you all as we mark this important milestone. Please share this Save the Date with any friends you think may be excited to join.
Make a Donation to Our Annual Appeal! ([link removed])
Faithful Friends: Yuba Liberation Campaign

Friends and Supporters,

We are thrilled to celebrate the critical efforts of Faithful Friends - Amigos Fieles ([link removed]) , a longstanding Visitation Group in the FFI network that recently played an important role in the termination of the immigration detention contract in Yuba County, California!


In 2012, Faithful Friends initially began visiting and supporting people in immigration detention at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, California, where they raised awareness about conditions such as high levels of lead in the drinking water and spoke out publicly against the ICE contract, which was terminated due to community pressure in 2018 ([link removed]) !
Faithful Friends then focused all of their efforts on supporting the people in ICE detention at Yuba County Jail, another local jail situated about an hour away in Marysville. Faithful Friends supported dozens of individuals detained at Yuba who went on hunger strikes in 2019 and 2020, coordinating information-sharing between pods and raising funds for commissary deposits.

In 2021, Faithful Friends joined forces with the powerful Yuba Liberation Coalition ([link removed]) , a coalition of organizations and currently and formerly detained leaders hosted by the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice ([link removed]) .
The Yuba Liberation Coalition formed with two goals: to free the last 11 people

in ICE detention at Yuba and end the ICE contract. Soon after joining the Yuba Liberation Coalition, Faithful Friends experienced retaliation from the jail in the form of a temporary visitation ban; however, they remained steadfast in their commitment to abolition over their access, and after a collective statement of support ([link removed]) signed by FFI and other organizations, were able to resume visiting. Within six months of formation, the Yuba Liberation Coalition achieved their first goal — there were no people left in ICE detention at Yuba! — but then, the Biden administration heartlessly transferred more individuals to Yuba later that year.


However, the Yuba Liberation Coalition did not give up and subsequently published a damning report ([link removed]) in 2022, outlining the need to urgently end the ICE contract. Six months after the release of that report, the Biden administration announced that it was terminating the ICE contract at Yuba ([link removed]) !

FFI looks forward to celebrating the end of immigration detention in Yuba County with Faithful Friends and the rest of the Yuba Liberation Coalition outside the jail at an in-person gathering in March. We especially want to express our gratitude and appreciation for the tireless coordinator of Faithful Friends, Susan Lange, who has been with Faithful Friends since day one (an entire decade!), as well as for all of the powerful previously and currently detained advocates and organizers who have fought to ensure that there is now no immigration detention in all of northern California.

Finally, we encourage everyone inspired by this important movement victory to get involved by supporting Carlos Sauceda, a critical leader in the Yuba Liberation Coalition, as he continues to fight for his right to return home. Take Action Here! ([link removed])

In Solidarity,

Rebecca Merton
Senior Visitation
& Monitoring Strategist
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