Freedom for Immigrants is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. We track our progress on both the individual and systemic level, progress that you make possible with your support!
we’ve impacted thousands of lives
BUILDING A MOVEMENT
Since 2010, something extraordinary has been happening across the country. Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC) has been convening a growing movement of volunteers that visit people in immigration detention. Our co-founders Christina Fialho and Christina Mansfield started by building the first visitation group in California at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond. In 2012, they launched Freedom for Immigrants as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Now 4,500 volunteers visit people in 69 immigrant prisons in nearly 30 states on a weekly basis, offering a lifeline to the outside world and exposing abuse. Learn more about our network of community-led visitation groups.
HOLDING THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE
In addition to our visitation network, we also run the nation’s largest hotline for people in immigration detention.
Through these two windows into the system, we are able to monitor human and civil rights abuses daily. We then use the data and stories to push for systemic change at the local, state, and federal level through a combination of organizing, civil rights complaints, and legislation.
Learn more about some of our investigations.
BUILDING A WORLD WITHOUT DETENTION
We know that simply educating our legislators about how our tax dollars are being used to perpetrate abuse will not end this system. We have to envision and model what a world without immigration detention will look like.
Freedom for Immigrants is building that world through our community-based alternative programs. We work to free people by filing parole applications and paying their immigration bonds through our National Bond Fund. We help reunite families and communities, connecting them with lawyers, transportation, and mental health services when needed. We also provide housing for asylum seekers through our sponsorship program and our safe house in Louisiana. Once bonded out, people are eight times more likely to win their cases, especially if they have post-release support. Learn more about alternatives to detention.
PASSING LEGISLATION
Freedom for Immigrants works on local ordinances as well as state and federal laws to divest from immigration detention and invest in community-based alternative programs. Freedom for Immigrants drafted and co-sponsored the Dignity Not Detention Act — composed of the first statewide bills in the country to stop detention expansion and give the state attorney general oversight powers. These bills passed in California — a state that used to detain a quarter of all people in immigration detention. Since Dignity Not Detention went into effect, seven municipalities ended their ICE contracts.
We then worked in a statewide coalition of immigrant rights groups to pass another bill to phase out private prisons in California. This groundbreaking statewide work has allowed us to push forward Congressional legislation, including a federal budget amendment to put a moratorium on immigration detention expansion and accompanying bicameral bill. Learn more about our policy advocacy.
“I want to say to the folks at Freedom for Immigrants and to all the people who are benefitting from the work Freedom for Immigrants does day in and day out to give people respect: Don’t stop. We hope to join you, and we want you to know that we got your back.
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FOLLOWING THE LEADERSHIP OF IMPACTED PEOPLE
To abolish immigration detention, people impacted by this system of oppression must organize. And allies must listen and follow their lead.
“Thanks to Freedom for Immigrants, I have learned strategies to effectively advocate for my rights and the rights of people in immigrant prisons. Now, I am running a successful small business and continue to work with Freedom for Immigrants to end this system.”
Freedom for Immigrants’ Leadership Council is comprised of fierce advocates who were formerly or are currently detained, including transgender women, and gender non-conforming people. Learn from Gretta Soto Moreno, a member of our Leadership Council about her fight for freedom for herself and others.
CHANGING THE NARRATIVE THROUGH MEDIA ADVOCACY
Prior to the summer of 2018 when the Trump administration expanded family separation at the border, immigration detention was largely operating in the shadows. In fact, according to Freedom for Immigrants’ media study, of the top newspapers in the United States, there were only 845 articles that focused primarily on immigration detention between 2009 and 2017. Between 2014 to 2016, 36 op-eds about immigrant detention appeared in top papers, but none of them were authored by people identifying as directly impacted by detention.
Freedom for Immigrants launched Imm-Print in 2017 to begin to change this reality and ensure that first-hand accounts of detention were given the spotlight. Imm-Print is the first publication in the country of its kind that centers the stories and artwork from people in immigration detention. Our weekly news reporting has contributed mainstream news reporting on immigration detention in outlets such as the BBC News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Huffington Post. Check out our media work here.
CHANGING THE NARRATIVE THROUGH STORYTELLING
We engage with influential artists to raise awareness about immigration detention, and we undertake creative storytelling projects to build an archive of the present for future generations. Freedom for Immigrants consulted on Season 7 of Orange Is The New Black that featured a storyline in immigration detention; we also took the writers and producers to visit detention facilities.
We also hosted a concert with the amazing support of The California Endowment with Grammy-award winning artist Miguel and actress and comedian Cristela Alonzo calling for an end to immigration detention. Our concert was covered by Rolling Stone Magazine, and Miguel released his own music video, highlighting our work and featuring Freedom for Immigrants' co-founder Christina Fialho. Learn more about our storytelling projects.
CHANGING THE WORLD
To end immigration detention in the United States, we have to stop the growth of multinational private prison corporations.
We can only accomplish this goal by exposing immigration detention systems across the globe. Freedom for Immigrants launched its international organizing arm in 2018 to build a global movement of immigration detention visitation programs that are able to shed light in a consistent manner for the first time on this hidden system. Learn more here.
OUR IMPACT IN REVIEW
2020 - 2021 Year In Review
2019 - 2020 Year in Review
2018 - 2019 Year In Review
2017 - 2018 Year In Review
2016 - 2017 Year In Review