Author: Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

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Updates

NEAT Intern! 2023

Marianas Fernandez

As a Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Team intern for IM4HI, Marianas Fernandez works on case management for asylum seekers by connecting them to local community resources in the education, health, transportation, and legal fields. She 

A Bay Area native, Marianas Fernandez grew up amongst people of different backgrounds and speaking different languages. Her name, ‘Marianas,’ derives from the group of islands of which Guam is a part. She has strong CHamoru and Filipino roots. As a minority woman, she strongly advocates for equity, diversity, and sharing of cultures. 

She currently attends the University of California at Santa Cruz, pursuing a double major in Legal Studies and Sociology, with a concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies. The people she has met at IM4HI have further pushed her toward pursuing a law profession, where she is thinking about becoming an immigration lawyer or public defender. 

Marianas enjoys playing soccer, hanging out with her 6 little siblings, reading, and journaling when she is not working or studying.

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Media

Interfaith prayer rally calls for closure of Imperial Regional Detention Center

Imperial Valley Press (IVP) reports:

CALEXICO – The Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI) held a public prayer service for detained persons at the Imperial Regional Detention Center (IRDC), which ended with a call to have a just closing of the center.

IRDC is a temporary holding facility in Calexico that houses individuals who are seeking asylum and awaiting processing or individuals awaiting deportation…

Read more and see photos on ivpressonline.com

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Events Resources

Border Experience Pilgrimage

Faith leaders from Northern and Southern California visited Calexico, US and Mexicali, Mexico April 26th-27th, 2023 in a multifaith Pilgrimage to learn and bear witness to struggles immigrants are facing at the U.S. – Mexico border in California, and to call for a better future. The delegation first traveled to Mexico to visit a shelter in Mexicali where many asylum seekers have been blocked from approaching the border and seeking asylum and protection. The following day, the group conducted a prayer service in front of Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, US, to bear witness to the suffering of those who are detained inside. The Pilgrimage ended with a visit to the Holtville cemetery of unnamed immigrants who have died in the desert in the region.

The Pilgrimage aimed to shed light on the injustices of the current asylum seeking process and immigrant detention. Fairness, freedom and opportunity should be at the core of our immigration system, but our current system isn’t set up to uphold these values. Instead, the Federal Government systematically blocks and deprives people of their liberty, separates them from their loved ones, and often puts lives at risk in ICE detention. The current system of detention didn’t exist just a few decades ago, and is inhumane and unnecessary: people can navigate immigration proceedings while living with their families or in the community without the trauma of immigration detention.

Learn more about the Imperial Valley, the harms of immigrant detention including at Imperial Regional Detention Facility, and the right to seek asylum with the Border Experience Pilgrimage Resource Guide.