Aid for Immigrant Families
Looking to help the immigrant families on the border?
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and the ACLU, both grantees of the Community Foundation, are accepting donations as they deploy aid to the children and their parents.
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC)
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, along with the Kresge Foundation, recently supported MIRC to establish a centralized hub for intake, legal advice, and referral services for individuals and families with immigration-related legal crises in the Detroit area. MIRC issued a press release that details the work that we are supporting.
With offices in Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and Detroit, MIRC provides statewide education, outreach and community-building, and serves as a resource center for immigrant advocates. MIRC leads Welcoming Michigan, a statewide immigrant integration initiative that aims to foster mutual respect and understanding among immigrant and U.S.-born Michiganders. Since its founding, MIRC has served as the trusted, statewide community resource for immigration and immigrant-related legal services, advocacy, training, and more for low-income and vulnerable immigrants. In 2016, MIRC helped 283 immigrants become U.S. citizens and assisted a total of 2,105 clients with immigration-related issues.
MIRC provides legal screening and represents all of the children placed in unaccompanied/separated children’s foster care in Michigan. Michigan is actually one of the largest states for foster care and about 2/3 of their clients are separated right now.
ACLU – National Immigrant Rights Project*
The ACLU’s national office established the Immigrant Rights Project to oversee urgent litigation to try to address the separation policy.
*Note that the ACLU Foundation is the 501(c)(3) arm of the ACLU.