Remember last September when we raised a few dollars for RAICES and their efforts to help immigrants particularly hard hit by the floods? Well, RAICES has their hands full now with this insane family separation policy at our southern border. This time, though, people are coming out in droves to support the work they are doing to help protect the most vulnerable among us. Folks have donated (as of this writing) nearly $8 MILLION DOLLARS to help counter this medieval policy – that’s almost a million dollars more than RAICES annual budget!

If you are as sickened by our administration’s cowardly and cynical policy as we are, you can help. Just click the link below and throw a few bucks into the bucket. Show our president and his ilk what being an American is REALLY about.

• Click her to donate to RAICES and help reunite an immigrant parent with their child •

Here’s the scoop from RAICES:

MATCH ALERT: this fundraiser has been matched up to 260K by several private donors. Thank you, matchers!! We’re still looking for more matching donors – PM an organizer if you can help!

FAQs about how RAICES gets the money, other ways you can help: https://bit.ly/2M4yWMm

We are collectively revulsed at what’s happening to immigrant families on our southern border. In times when we often think that the news can’t possibly get worse, it does — we learned last night that 2000 children (many of them infants and toddlers) have been separated from their parents in just six weeks under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.

These children don’t know where their parents are. Their parents aren’t allowed to communicate with them while in custody. The government hasn’t set up a system to reunite separated parents and children if one or both are ultimately released. In many cases, parents have been deported without their children — sometimes, young children are deported without their parents.

Until the election, I think there’s little chance of a political solution to this grave American moral failing. But there is still something we can do. Today we are raising money for RAICES (https://www.facebook.com/raicestexas), the largest immigration legal services provider 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. They have two key goals at this time:

-directly fund the bond necessary to get parents out of detention and reunited with their children while awaiting court proceedings

-ensure legal representation for EVERY child in Texas’ immigration courts (last year, 76% of kids (over 13,000!) did not have representation)

Bonds are set at a MINIMUM of $1500, and are usually in the range of $5-10K, even for asylum seekers without any criminal history. We are starting our goal at $1500 and will see how far we get.