What’s the Family Assistance Fund?

RAICES is the largest immigration organization in the lone star state, providing free and low-cost legal services to immigrant and asylum-seeking children, families, and refugees. They’re one of the leading voices and biggest advocates for Central American asylum seekers. We spoke with RAICES via email about the Family Assistance Fund, which provides asylum-seeking families and individuals basic necessities before, during, and after processing.

 100% of contributions from the We Are Them site goes directly to this fund.

1. What specific necessities does the Family Assistance Fund provide asylum seekers?

 The family assistance fund was created to ensure our clients have their basic needs met.  Asylum seekers oftentimes need help with some of the following: (1) rent, (2) clothing (including public school uniforms), (3) food, (4) temporary lodging, (5) transportation, (6) bus passes, (7) enrollment in English classes, and (8) paying utility bills. 

 2. How did the Family Assistance Fund come about?

 The Family Assistance Fund was created in order to eliminate financial barriers that prevent clients from a successful resettlement into the United States.  

 RAICES recognizes that providing legal services to a client has no merit if this individual's basic needs are not being met.

 Procedurally, US immigration laws pose a great burden on the individual seeking immigration relief.  For example, an asylum seeker has one year to submit their asylum application. When the asylum application is submitted, they can apply for a worker's permit approximately 150 days from the date of submission.  Therefore, it is assumed that the asylum seeker can find someone to support them throughout this entire time.  

 3. Who do the necessities go to (i.e., asylum-seeking families, unaccompanied minors, LGBTQ, etc.)?   

 The Family Assistance Fund will be available to clients served under our legal and/or social programs. Some of our clients include, but not limited to, (1) asylum seekers from Central America, (2) unaccompanied minors, (3) victims of trafficking, and (4) crime victims. 

 4. As someone who directly works with asylum seekers, what is the biggest or one of the biggest needs they have? And how does the Family Assistance Fund address this?

Since asylum seekers do not have the ability to work right away, making financial ends meet is the biggest struggle.  Below are very common examples seen from our clients: 

 (1) Rent assistance, since they do not have consistent income; 

(2) Public school uniforms; 

(3) Food at the beginning of the month when rent and utility bills have been paid; 

(4) Registration fees to enroll in ESL classes; 

(5) Winter clothes, such as jackets and coats;

(6) Bus passes, especially for clients with ankle monitors that are required to visit the ISAP office every 2 weeks; and 

(7) Temporary lodging if their court is located in a city different to where they live (AKA Austin clients have to travel to San Antonio). 

 We’re so proud of what RAICES is accomplishing with this fund, and know these resources will help so many families rebuild their lives.

*Note: Detention centers aren’t accepting outside resources within facilities, however funds help in other ways like legal representation, etc.—as well as assistance to asylum-seeking families and unaccompanied minors outside of facilities. For more information about outside aide in detention centers, we recommend contacting RAICES.    

Photo by Kamal Bilal on Unsplash