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WITHHOLDING FOR PRIVACY REASONS(All across Ohio, the United States, and beyond)
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- Volunteer training this Thursday - sign up!
the project
Deportation is an EXTREME consequence for a paperwork problem. It separates people from their homes, families, jobs—lives they have built over years and even decades. Sometimes they are deported back to the danger they fled. #ReuniteUS is a campaign to disrupt this reality and bring people home!
The Biden administration does have the power to allow deported people to come home to the United States. It has the power, but it needs the will. That is where #ReuniteUS comes in.
With your support, we will turbocharge our publicity campaign and ensure that every household in Ohio understands how deportation is impacting our neighbors. We will mobilize grassroots and grasstops activists, educate policymakers about the stakes and the solutions, and establish a legal infrastructure to work on individual cases—all with the goal of changing federal policy so that our deported friends and loved ones can come home!
Deported people should not be dealing with a life sentence, or a death sentence. Support #ReuniteUS and help bring humanity and justice to immigration policy today!
the steps
With a small amount of grassroots financial support, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance created a WhatsApp group for deported people to connect with each other, worked with national policy experts to identify paths to return in existing law, and interviewed more than 250 individuals who form the heart of #ReuniteUS. Their stories have been told in Reuters, the Columbus Dispatch, and POLITICO Magazine.
But to reach decision makers within the Biden administration who could implement our policy proposals, we need to do more. With your support, we can establish the public education and legal infrastructure we need to make #ReuniteUS a reality for Ohioans dealing with deportation. Here are the next steps in our plan, starting as soon as we secure the funding to do it.
Public Education
- Build out the new #ReuniteTV YouTube channel. Hire a professional video editor, create an editorial calendar, and work with #ReuniteUS members to develop video dispatches.
- Pitch individual stories and columns by deported people to local, state, and national media, advancing the moral imperative for return after deportation and promoting solutions.
- Create a website to serve as the home for this campaign.
- Educating decision makers in the Biden administration and Congress about the need for #ReuniteUS and policy solutions.
- Engage the grassroots, grasstops, supporters, allies, and champions in calls to action.
- Provide stipends to deported people and their families who contribute to #ReuniteUS.
Legal Support
- Create a secure legal hub for case management.
- Organize a mass FOIA filing for #ReuniteUS members to obtain their complete case files from the government, in preparation for future case filings.
- Find and train legal volunteers: pro bono attorneys, accredited reps, and case helpers to assist with gathering documents and information.
- Fundraise to secure additional legal help and funds for filing fees, travel, and other costs associated with a person's return.
We commit to hiring immigrants and BIPOC for a majority of these roles, compensating them fairly, and providing stipends for #ReuniteUS members who participate in the publicity and advocacy strategies.
why we're doing it
Judges at the Cleveland Immigration Court ordered the deportation of 20,000 Ohioans over the past ten years—destabilizing the lives of them AND their children, spouses, parents, friends, and communities. In recent years, deportation of long-term Ohio residents increased, bringing more pain into Ohio homes.
Instead of banishing people from their families forever, we can shift the paradigm on immigration and create laws that are functional, humane, and fair. Congress will need to enact many of those immigration solutions, but there are steps the Biden administration can take. Allowing deported people to return is one.
Helping families become whole again, allowing people to return to the lives they were leading before their worlds fell apart, would be an act of love, grace, and humanity. It would be a step toward healing for many, and we want you to be a part of making #ReuniteUS a reality!
budget
Disbursed budget 07.15.22
| TOTAL RAISED = | $5,375.00 |
| ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) | N/A |
| ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) | $161.25 |
| TOTAL TO DISBURSE= | $5,213.75 |
Original budget:
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TOTAL PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED |
$50,000 |
| ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) | N/A |
| ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) (Donation processing fee does not apply to match funding.) |
$1,546 |
| TOTAL TO RAISE= | $51,546 |
Donation processing fees apply to donations only. Please note, fees are estimated here and final numbers may change based on the final amount raised.
Phase One: Core Infrastructure for #ReuniteUS
Public Education ($25,000)
#ReuniteTV YouTube Channel: video editing and production, graphic design, digital advertising, travel, filming with deported people and families wherever they are - $7,500
Media relations: working with reporters to cover individual stories, advancing the moral imperative for return after deportation and promoting solutions; placing opinion pieces and essays from deported people and their families in diverse media outlets - $2,000
Creating a website that is an online home for this campaign - $5,000
Mobilization: educating decision makers in the Biden administration and Congress about the need for #ReuniteUS and policy solutions; building a base of supporters and champions among influencers, both individuals and organizations; grassroots calls to action - $5,000
Equity: stipends for deported people and their families who share their stories with the public and policymakers - $5,500
Legal Services ($25,000)
Creating a secure legal hub for case management - $5,000
Organizing a mass FOIA filing for #ReuniteUS members so that the have all of their case information available - $4,000
Finding and training legal volunteers: pro bono attorneys and case managers to assist with gathering documents and information - $5,500
Application fees, travel, and other costs associated with return - $9,500
Fundraising for additional legal help and other costs - $1,000
We commit to hiring immigrants and BIPOC people for a majority of these roles, compensating them fairly, and providing stipends for #ReuniteUS members who participate in the publicity and advocacy strategies.
We commit to raising more funds to finish this campaign. $50,000 is not enough to accomplish the goal of reuniting all families.
updates
Volunteer training this Thursday - sign up!
Posted 05/17/2022 - 11:05am
#ReuniteUS is an advocacy campaign to ease policy barriers so that more deported people can come home! Read more about it here. Ohio Immigrant Alliance is looking for researchers, writers, digital media specialists, lawyers, case helpers, and more. We're hosting a virtual volunteer orientation on May 19th at 7pm. Lend us your time and talents so that more deported Ohioans (and people from other states) can return to their families, homes, and communities! RSVP here to get the Zoom link; share the Facebook event and Instagram post to help us spread the word!
Volunteer training this Thursday - sign up!
Posted 05/17/2022 - 11:05am
#ReuniteUS is an advocacy campaign to ease policy barriers so that more deported people can come home! Read more about it here. Ohio Immigrant Alliance is looking for researchers, writers, digital media specialists, lawyers, case helpers, and more. We're hosting a virtual volunteer orientation on May 19th at 7pm. Lend us your time and talents so that more deported Ohioans (and people from other states) can return to their families, homes, and communities! RSVP here to get the Zoom link; share the Facebook event and Instagram post to help us spread the word!
2 new videos on #ReuniteTV
Posted 02/24/2022 - 12:54pm
Today we premiered two new episodes of #ReuniteTV in an event sponsored by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.
- Saidu Sow's temporary reunion with wife and daughter in Mauritania, and how he feels when they're gone. https://bit.ly/PrayersForJusticeSOW
- Seydou Sarr's Quranic teaching of Love and Harmony, and the disconnect in US policy with his own deportation. https://bit.ly/PrayersForJusticeSARR
Check them out, and share!
Check out our first video - The Men of #ReuniteUS
Posted 02/21/2022 - 11:07am
We posted our first video for the #ReuniteTV YouTube Channel, "The Men of #ReuniteUS," and invite you to check it out!
Here's how this video came about. We asked the members of our #ReuniteUS WhatsApp group: who wants to be part of our first #ReuniteTV video? This video is a montage of selfies and other photos from men who are part of #ReuniteUS. They were callously deported and now live far from the homes, families, and lives they built in the US. They say: "President Biden, we want to come home!" We got such a rousing response, people who didn't see their photos in the montage asked "Where am I?" Their photos will be apart of the next two installments in this video series.
To me, this proves that what we're doing with #ReuniteTV is exactly what we need to be doing. People want their faces to be seen, their stories to be known. Their lives are not over because they were deported. They are not the "ghosts" that they seem to be in immigration policy and news stories right now. To paraphrase the artist and leader Julio Salgado, they exist! They still have hopes and dreams. Their families and communities miss them. They deserve to come home!!!
Meet us on Feb. 24 in CLE!
Posted 02/16/2022 - 6:33pm
We're so excited that the Cleveland Leadership Center has invited us to bring #ReuniteUS to the Accelerate 2022 Pitch Competition, where we can win $5,000 towards accomplishing our goal! Purchase your ticket to be in the room and learn more about it and other impressive grassroots campaigns to make positive change. Space is limited and COVID protocols are firmly in place. Check out all the info here: https://www.cleveleads.org/clc-events/accelerate/.
If we make it to the final round, you'll even get to vote! Hope to see you there.
photos
This is where photos will go once we build flickr integrationdonors
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Connie H.
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Heather P.
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Welcome Home
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