Yesterday (Independence Day 2018), my husband and I traveled from Durham, NC to the ICE detention center in Farmville, VA to participate in an organized protest…but no one else was there to protest and we couldn’t get into the facility to visit detainees.
According to a July 3 article from the Texas Tribune, “Detainees’ ability to make calls has taken on new urgency as separated migrant families see phone [calls] as the crucial lifeline by which they can be reconnected or find out if their children, sometimes held hundreds of miles away, are safe.”
And while calls to certain lawyers and government agencies are free, detainees must pay to call their families. Detainees without sufficient funds in their commissary accounts are denied personal phone calls.
When we returned home, we got straight to work identifying detainees in the Farmville facility and adding funds to their commissary accounts. We were able to put $25 in 12 accounts before getting blocked from making additional contributions by the system.
Now, we’re raising money to fund more phone calls so that families can connect and get at least of sliver of peace of mind during such a tumultuous time.
In order to raise that money, I designed this t-shirt (with a quote from the movie Clueless) on Bonfire.com.
Please buy a shirt (or a few!) and let everyone you know about this campaign, and, more importantly, this injustice.
Thank you!