Partners
In the fall of 2019, the NOLA Grannies leadership invited a number of groups working with the immigrant population of New Orleans to present an overview of their organizations and needs to our membership during a general membership meeting in October 2019. We have helped the following groups, our current partners serving immigrants in the city and beyond, with NOLA Grannie volunteers and with financial assistance.
Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA)
ISLA is a legal services organization that defends the rights of our immigrant communities and advocates for just and humane immigration policy. Immigrants in the United States are not entitled to an attorney in their removal proceedings. Instead, if they cannot afford an attorney, they are forced to present their legal cases before an immigration judge on their own. This typically takes place in a foreign language, and against a trained attorney representing the government. In an attempt to even the playing field, ISLA attorneys visit detained immigrants at the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center on a weekly basis and provide pro bono representation under a universal representation model before the Oakdale Immigration Court. Through this service, ISLA ensures that detained immigrants’ due process rights are protected and that our clients do not have to attend these hearings and present their cases on their own.
La Semilla/The Seed is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution that started out focusing on the socioeconomic and educational needs of the Latino community. The guiding philosophy of a Semilla/The Seed is that education opens all doors to success in life. La Semilla/The Seed is an all-volunteer organization devoted to providing a quality education to adult learners of English and Spanish. Since its founding in 2007, the services of La Semilla/The Seed have become well-established and widely known throughout the metropolitan New Orleans area and beyond.
Louisiana Assistance for Immigrants in Detention (LA AID) email: laadvocatesforimmigrants@gmail.com
Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention is committed to abolishing immigration detention and advocating for immigrants isolated in Louisiana detention facilities. LA AID volunteers visit detained individuals, monitor conditions in detention facilities, and advocate in conjunction with detained individuals and their families. LA AID Works closely with a national organization, FFI (Freedom For Immigrants)
Mujeres Luchadoras (Women Warriors)- Contact nolagrannies@gmail.com for more for information.
Mujeres Luchadoras was formed in May 2016 to assist women and their families living in the New Orleans area who have lost loved ones to deportation. Through diaper drives and the sale of meals, the group assists with the urgent material needs of families thrown into immigration-related crises. Members share information on jobs, immigration legal services, and mental health resources via text group chat and at monthly meetings where donated supplies are distributed and the bonds of friendship and support nurtured. As of November 2018, the group had formed a network of 25 families from across the metropolitan New Orleans area.
Team Brownsville volunteers help families and individuals legally seeking asylum in the United States. The team adapts to the conditions on the ground and has offered a variety of programs in the last few years to assist asylum seekers. Since the Biden Administration announced an end to the MPP (Remain in Mexico) program, Team Brownsville has been focused on a dual mission: to continue supporting the asylum seeker community in Matamoros, Mexico, and to welcome and support families released by US authorities into the United States at the Brownsville Bus Station. Team Brownsville provides food, water, shelter, and basic necessities. The volunteers at Team Brownsville support a variety of legal, medical, and other services for this vulnerable population.
Voces Unidas: Louisiana Immigrants’ Rights Coalition
Voces Unidas: Louisiana Immigrants’ Rights Coalition exists to bring groups together who are doing work in the arena of Immigrants’ Rights, prison reform, labor reforms, anti-hate, and antiracism. Voces Unidas works directly with affected individuals in and out of the detention camps in Louisiana and all over the country. The organization’s main focus is getting released detainees to a safe place where they feel like they are human again and [to] treat everyone with dignity. Dignity means advocating for [detainees], helping them win asylum cases, arranging logistics for transportation out of the centers and to their families, providing cell phones, putting funds in detainees' accounts so they may call family/friends, direct sponsoring, and more.