California residents Charlotte and Dave Willner set a modest goal of just $1,500 — the minimum bond set for a single detained immigrant — on a Facebook donation page Saturday.
Moved by the now-viral image of a 2-year-old Honduran girl wailing for her parents, they couple wanted to raise money for Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) a nonprofit organization that provides legal services to immigrant and refugee families in Texas.
“For years, RAICES has been working with some of the most vulnerable members of our society to ensure they receive advocacy and fair legal representation,” the donation page reads. “They have two key goals at this time: 1) directly fund the bond necessary to get parents out of detention and reunited with their children while awaiting court proceedings and 2) ensure legal representation for EVERY child in Texas’ immigration courts (last year, 76% of kids (over 13,000!) did not have representation)”
Four days later, the Willners have raised over $10 million dollars from over 255,000 individuals at the time of publication, making it the single largest fundraising page in Facebook’s history.
“When we look at the faces of these children, we can’t help but see our own children’s faces,” Charlotte Willner told The Mercury News. “This is the closest thing we could do to hugging that kid.”
In response to the influx of donations, RAICES has gone on a hiring spree for more lawyers and plans to fund training services for volunteer lawyers willing to travel to Texas.
“These people need lawyers,” Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES, told the New York Times. “Beyond the punditry and politics, each person suffering from this policy has a huge legal case to begin to prepare for.”
Last year, 76 percent of children in immigration court in Texas were not represented. According to RAICES, some of the donations from the Willner’s fundraiser will be funneled to a project called the Legal Representation, Advocacy, and Education Project, which aspires to address that problem and provide universal legal representation for released unaccompanied kids in Texas.
Donations will also be used to fund the organization’s Family Reunification and Bond Fund, which directly supports legal services for detained parents separated from their children and, most importantly, funds bonds to get parents released. Detained parents cannot be reunited with their children until the full amount of their immigration bond is paid. While bonds are set at a minimum of $1,500, they are frequently in the range of $5,000 to $10,000, even for those seeking asylum without any criminal history.
A permanent bond fund, which RAICES is attempting to establish with the influx of donations, is an incalculable public good that can operate almost indefinitely if fully funded.
In addition to RAICES, dozens of other organizations are working tirelessly to provide meaningful assistance to detained migrant families.
Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) provides pro-bono representation to immigrants children during court proceedings. Over the last 10 years, they have helped over 16,000 children and have trained over 25,000 attorneys.
The South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project provides free legal services to asylum seekers detained in South Texas, as does the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
The Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services is the largest and only organization in West Texas providing free and low cost representation to unaccompanied minors, who are housed in the same facilities as children separated from their parents at the border.
The Tahirih Justice Center provides free legal services to immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence, violence that is no longer protected under asylum law.
The Texas Tribune has created a comprehensive list of organizations in the area that are mobilizing to protect immigrant children and parents separated at the border.