Concrete Ways to Help Families on the Border

My plan for today was to post Part 3/3 of my Writing & Strategic Planning Retreat Series, but honestly the crisis at the border has kept me up at night this week and I would be remiss to ignore what is happening in our world.

Imagining children ripped from their parents' arms and detained without a plan for reuniting them with their families is more than we should be able to bear.

And yet... here we are...

So instead of chatting about writing and planning today, I've decided to re-share a FB post that touches on how this has hit home, and, more importantly, that outlines concrete ways you can help.

I have also expanded upon the original post here with even more ways that you can DO something today. And tomorrow. And the next day.

Please keep in mind that the President's Executive Order allows for indefinite detention of families... trading one trauma for another.

Letting families out on bond while they await their immigration hearings is an option, but the President prefers to present imprisonment as the only option. 

We ALL have to DO right now.

We have to Speak Out.

We have to Take to the Streets.

We have to give as much MONEY as we possibly can to those organizations on the front-lines fighting for these families.

Do not succumb to those feelings of helplessness and overwhelm.

We have to to ACT. Then ACT again. And again. And again. Until this insanity is done.

Not in our Name, Comunidad. Not in our Name.

​#familiesbelongtogether ​

Original Facebook Post

In the last month or so, our kiddo’s separation anxiety has kicked up a notch. Goodbyes are a little more tearful, a little more intense.

This change is of course a little heart-wrenching for this first time Mama.

Here’s the thing though, I know he’s safe and loved each time I leave him with a trusted caregiver.

So I give him a smile, a hug, a kiss, and a quick goodbye, and I go. I don’t prolong the leaving and I revel in the joyful reunions.

This week those separations have been harder for me.

Not because I’m worried for our little one, but because each time he looks at me with those “Mami don’t go” eyes, my heart breaks for those parents at the border whose children are being taken away... indefinitely...
​
Destroying families is morally corrupt—it has always been.

But these new enforcement policies take that cruelty to a new low.
​
Not in our name, Comunidad.

Not in our name. #Familiesbelongtogether

This New York Times op-ed lays out four concrete actions you can take:

- Call Congress
- Join Protests
- Donate to legal and humanitarian efforts.
- Vote

Please don’t just like & share this post; take action today!

Legal & Humanitarian Efforts Mentioned in the Op-Ed:

• Texas Civil Rights Project
• Florence Project
• Kids in Need of Defense
• The Young Center
• Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley

See More Organizations & Actions Below

More Organizations You Can Support

• ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union (Full disclosure: I am on the board of the ACLU. I encourage you to join the ACLU and sign up for monthly giving because they are fighting on all fronts: immigrants' rights, capital punishment, criminal law reform, disability rights, free speech, HIV, human rights, juvenile justice, LGBT rights, mass incarceration, national security, prisoners' rights, privacy & technology, racial justice, religious liberty, reproductive freedom, voting rights, and womens' rights).
• National Immigration Law Center
• Women's Refugee Commission: Five Actions You Can Take to Help End Family Separation and Support Families from 
• RAICES - The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services
• Here’s a list of organizations that are mobilizing to help immigrant children separated from their families (​a dozen more organizations included in this article)

Call Congress & Key Members of the Administration

• Call My Congress

Sign Petitions

• Sign the petition: Kirstjen Nielsen must resign
• End the family separation practice of migrants at our borders

Upcoming Protests

• Pledge to join a June 30 #FamiliesBelongTogether Action & Find Protests in Your Area

Register to Vote & Register Others to Vote

• Rock the Vote
• Volunteer with Rock the Vote
• Rock the Vote Action Center​

Important Articles

• Trump Executive Order Makes Border Crisis Worse: Jailing families is not a solution​
• Fact-Checking Family Separation
• ‘I Can’t Go Without My Son,’ a Mother Pleaded as She Was Deported to Guatemala
• ​The Government Has No Plan for Reuniting the Immigrant Families It Is Tearing Apart​​
• Toddlers Separated From Parents at the Border Are Being Detained in 'Tender Age' Shelters
• What Separation from Parents Does to Children: "The Effect is Catastrophic"
• Doctors Concerned About 'Irreparable Harm' To Separated Migrant Children
• Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan’s Family Separation Denial​
• ‘At Least During the Internment …’ Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter by George Takei

---

Before you go...

Read this post: Four Picture Books for This Political Climate.

Sign up for my e-mail list to get my Creativity & Cultura & Comunidad Newsletters, including blog updates, right in your inbox!