The Indianapolis Liberation Center is proud to distribute the Indiana Assistance to Immigrants in Detention monthly newsletter and is excited about collaborating with and supporting the important work they lead. The following updates, stories, and more are from Vol. 3 (January 2023).
At the start of 2023, the local volunteers of Indiana AID came together to mark the 1-year anniversary of this group providing visitation and support to individuals detained by ICE in the Clay County jail. We reflected on the work, shared moments of powerful impact, and highlighted many ongoing concerns we witness as we walk alongside our partners.
As part of Indiana AID’s mission statement, we seek to bear witness to our immigrant partners’ experiences, offer information, and provide resources. In the coming months, we will spotlight different aspects of individuals’ experiences in jail: concerns of medical neglect, access to food, limitations around hygiene, restrictions to communication, and more.
We hope with each newsletter– reading personal narratives from our partners, gaining insights into their day-to-day experiences in the jail, and seeing the impacts of immigration legislation at all levels – that you are moved and seek to impact change within your sphere of influence. This can look like sharing our newsletters, using your voice to contact legislators, correcting misinformation and disinformation around immigration topics, voting in local and national elections, donating to and volunteering with Indiana AID, and exploring a plethora of other opportunities to support immigrants.
As we look ahead to what will come in 2023, we are grateful to each one of you for journeying alongside us in our goal to support and care for these individuals detained by ICE.
David’s story*
*The name has been changed to protect the author’s identity and the story is translated from the original Spanish.
I’d like to share the summary of my life. To start, I was born July 3, 1990 in a city called Santa Rosa de Copan, but I was only born there. At 3 years old, my mother abandoned me. She left me with another family who gave me a different name. I use my birth name, though, because that is the name my mother gave me and I consider it my real name. My life changed brutally after I was 3 because my stepmother, or the woman who adopted me, died when I was 5 and less than a year later, my stepfather left us on the street. I lived on the street until I was 10 years old, trying to figure out how to survive day to day. Since I was small, I was always a hard worker. At 6 years old, I experienced one of my first traumas, where a gang member abused me sexually. For a time, I hated being male because I couldn’t support the fact of knowing that men can do so much harm, however, I grew up and knew to make good decisions in my life.
At 10 years old I began to live with an aunt, the sister of my real mother. For the first time, she put me in school and I loved to study. I carried a lot of resentment toward my mother for everything that had happened to me through her abandonment, but with the years, things changed. I came to know the presence of the Lord and loved him, erasing the bitterness from my life. I learned from my mother that pride and resentment make us lose what we love most in this world. However, my complicated life didn’t end there – throughout my youth, many bad things happened. Without having to look for problems, they would arrive as though I were a magnet for them. I fled my country due to so many bad things and threats of death. I came to seek asylum, but I missed a court date and for that reason I am here in the jail. I ask God for the opportunity to have the immigration judge reopen my case, to show that I can win my asylum case and that there’s more to fight for beyond that.
December monthly report ✔️ Multiple initial outreach messages were sent, along with ongoing partner communications ✔️ 22 Virtual visits with partners: $175 ✔️ 40 Commissary payments: $896 ✔️ 7 Books purchased: $131 ✔️ E-messaging stamps: $60 |
Immigration snapshots
- The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily extended Title 42, a Trump-era public health rule that has been used as immigration enforcement. It has allowed immigration authorities to expel more than 1 million migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since the start of the pandemic. The public health measure was set to end on Dec. 21.
- The Biden administration announced a parole program that provides a legal pathway for up to 30,000 people to arrive via air from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, provided they fulfill the program’s requirements, including having a U.S. sponsor. A similar program was announced for Venezuelans late last year.
- Those who enter illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border will be quickly expelled under Title 42
- Those who enter illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border will be quickly expelled under Title 42
- “CBP One” – CBP to begin requiring a mobile app for asylum seekers to request protection at ports of entry. The administration promotes the app as a means of making asylum processing more efficient by applying online and scheduling an appointment.
- “Available in English and Spanish, the CBP One™ application allows noncitizens located in Central and Northern Mexico to schedule an appointment and submit certain biographical information prior to their scheduled arrival at a POE.” (Source)
- Immigration advocates have concerns.
- Accessibility—the app requires a smartphone and reliable internet access and is not accessible to indigenous language speakers. Privacy & potential surveillance—the undisclosed use of migrants’ GPS location and biometric data, the availability of appointments, and known problems of racial inequity in facial recognition software.
- Accessibility—the app requires a smartphone and reliable internet access and is not accessible to indigenous language speakers. Privacy & potential surveillance—the undisclosed use of migrants’ GPS location and biometric data, the availability of appointments, and known problems of racial inequity in facial recognition software.
- In a positive immigration point, USCIS immigration processing is getting back up to speed after significant pauses and delays due to COVID
- For fiscal year 2022, USCIS report a record number of new naturalizations – more than 970,000
Contact us
- phone (voicemail only): 317-721-4044
- IndianaAID.org
Volunteer
Currently, our greatest needs are for…
- Spanish-speaking visitation partners
- Visitation partners who speak languages other than English and Spanish
- Financial support/fundraising experience
- Website and social media specialists
Donate
- Indiana AID is a volunteer group funded 100% by donations. Please consider a tax-deductible donation here.
- Shalom Mennonite Church is our fiscal sponsor. You will be taken to their giving page, where you will first select an amount to give and then choose the fund where you would like your money to go, “Indiana AID Fund.” None of the money donated to Indiana AlD goes to the church’s budget.
- You can also donate by sending a check to the church with “Indiana AID” in the memo line.
- Shalom Mennonite Church: 6100 E 32nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46226