A Meeting-Wide Project to Support the Legal Rights of the Immigrant Community

It’s become routine for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to violate rights enshrined in the Constitution as they detain and deport immigrants, not only across the country, but right here in the Richmond area.

Many among us are already responding individually to help protect and support the local immigrant community. However, it seems imperative that the Meeting as a whole respond with clear resistance to the inhumane actions of ICE. Towards that end, the Immigrant Solidarity Informal Committee is proposing that RFM commit to actively supporting the Sacred Heart Center in its mission to lift up and minister to the Latino community by raising $15,000 to support the Center’s Immigration Legal Services. This would enable the Center to hire an additional legal assistant who would be authorized by the Department of Justice to practice immigration law, so they can represent immigrants before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, the Immigration Courts, and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

There are many ways that deportations can be successfully challenged legally and the Center’s legal team uses such strategies to support immigrants in our area who are facing detention and deportation. The need far exceeds the Center’s capacity—and our job, if we take it on, is to help fund another legal assistant so more vulnerable immigrants can be served. The need for outside funding is for one year only, as the position would be self-supporting after the first year.

There are many reasons to take this project on. It’s an opportunity to do something big with and for a community in jeopardy and an opportunity to live our Quaker values. Also, a project like this provides unity and builds community for us. It could be a way to get newcomers involved and would help establish a Quaker presence in the larger community.

To carry out this project, an ad hoc committee under the care of the Race and Racial Justice Team will be appointed by Levi Goran, Clerk. Members of the current informal committee have already expressed interest in seeing the project through. We see many ways to fund raise that would involve the community inside and outside the Meeting, as well as the Sacred Heart community.

The Ad Hoc committee will develop a concrete fundraising plan utilizing a variety of fundraising strategies. Financial Stewardship will arrange for a fund for accepting donations and expenses. Please understand that this needs to be an additional gift, not a substitute for your regular donation to RFM.

Please contact members of the informal committee (Plum Cluverius, Diana Maxwell, Mary Moore, Rhonda Ligon, Lynda Perry, Ellen Arginteanu, Verna Boos, Barb Pedrotty, Margaret Edds) with questions about this proposed project, which is currently held over until the October MWB. It is our desire to begin to raise the money soon with the completion by the end of 2027.  The need to assist our neighbors legally fight ICE is NOW.