Immigration Bail & Bonds - Funds for Detained Immigrants

[Arthur Kegerreis]

Our group has expressed a desire to help find local bond funds for some of the detained immigrants we've been visiting. I've been in contact with a few people around the country and so far have come up with the following list. Please feel free to share it with anyone seeking assistance with their bond.

"People held in immigration detention can often be released to their home communities as they await trial—but only if they can afford to pay bond (or "bail"). Our organization pays bond for those who cannot otherwise afford it. Once a case is resolved, the bond money is returned (with interest), so we can use it to bail out another person."
-- Immigrant Bond Fund, CT

Yale Law School started an immigrant bond fund, in cooperation with two immigrants rights groups in Connecticut;

The Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance (CIRA)
https://www.facebook.com/CTImmigrantRightsAlliance/

and

Unidad Latina en Acción

https://ulanewhaven.org/.

Yale/Connecticut Immigrant Bail Fund:

https://www.immigrantbailfund.org/contact/
http://www.ctbailfund.org/about/

ACLU and UCI are investigating starting a similar bond fund in Southern California.
The forthcoming bond fund is an outgrowth of the Orange County Justice Fund, which helps arrange legal representation for those in detention, apparently limited to those from Orange County:
https://ocjusticefund.org/


Here's some info about UCI Law's Clinic:
UC Irvine Immigrant Rights Clinic:
https://www.law.uci.edu/academics/real- ... ights.html

Many bond offerings in California are in the Bay Area. The sources that have been suggested include:

Immigrant Family Defense Fund:
https://immigrantfamilies.org/newsandresources/
(this was also suggested by our Bay Area AFSC director, who's very active with prison reform)

Bay Area Immigration Bond Fund:
https://www.bayareaimmigrationbondfund.org/

Free Our Neighbors:
http://www.freeourneighbors.org/

An inquiry to them received a sympathetic response, but specified: "normally we just take referrals from our community partners (specific community groups we work with)"

Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC):
https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/

CLUE's Julio Barahona Exodus Fund (formerly the Adelanto Bond Fund):
https://www.cluejustice.org/julio_barahona_exodus_fund

Immigrant Families Together:

another org that has been working to raise bond funds, person by person, with GoFundMe campaigns. Their focus to date has been to bond out mothers in particular.

https://immigrantfamiliestogether.com/
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RAICES
The majority of detained children are reported to be held in Texas. RAICES is a Texas-based organization providing legal services to them at no cost, although it isn't clear if they help provide bond.
https://www.raicestexas.org/about/