Freedom for Immigrants is excited to announce the presentation of the 2021 Reverend John Guttermann Legacy Award to El Refugio in Lumpkin, Georgia for their outstanding contributions this year to the detention visitation and abolition movement.
Freedom for Immigrants established this award in honor of Reverend John Guttermann, who passed away in 2016 after a valiant fight with brain cancer. Rev. Guttermann was the founder of Conversations with Friends, a visitation group in Minnesota that was one of the first in the country, and a member of Freedom for Immigrants’ founding Leadership Council.
Each year, Freedom for Immigrants awards the Reverend John Guttermann Legacy Award to one or more outstanding visitation groups. Freedom for Immigrants presented the 2020 Rev. Guttermann Award to Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention (AVID) in the Chihuahuan Desert and the 2019 Rev. Guttermann Award to Immigrant Action Alliance (formerly Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees).
El Refugio has its roots in Georgia Detention Watch, whose members began in 2008 to visit immigrants and asylum seekers detained at Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest in the country with 1,600 detained individuals. After witnessing the challenges shared by those visiting loved ones at Stewart — traveling long distances, the trauma of family separation, and the lack of resources such as hotels and restaurants in the remote town of Lumpkin — a group of friends established El Refugio. In 2010, El Refugio opened a small hospitality house offering meals and lodging at no cost, as well as friendship and support, to the loved ones of immigrants and asylum seekers who are detained.
Over the course of an average year, 69 families would stay at least one night, 200 people would stop by for a meal, and 250-plus volunteers would make 576 visits to people inside Stewart. Then, during Christmas 2018, due to their incredible work, El Refugio was gifted a larger hospitality house nearby with five bedrooms and a long table where they can now seat 20 guests at once.
This past year, El Refugio launched their critical Advocacy Team, which works with individuals inside to coordinate strategic responses to the constant assault of medical neglect and physical abuse at the detention facility, infamously one of the deadliest in the country. Four individuals detained at Stewart have lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic alone.
“We are so excited to present this award to El Refugio. I personally have learned so much over the years from this incredible group, and it’s been an honor to grow with them in this movement toward abolition,” said Christina Fialho, the co-founder/executive director of Freedom for Immigrants. “Rev. Gutterman was an expert collaborator, and he brought love, hope, and compassion wherever he went. His legacy of welcome continues to live on in the impact groups like El Refugio have in communities across the United States. ”
Congratulations to this amazing organization!
To learn more about the Legacy Award, click here.