What is a Freedom Campaign? A freedom campaign surrounds a person with community support to help him/her to be released from detention.
How do we serve? We serve immigrants at the Adelanto detention facility, including asylum seekers, long term immigrant residents, some who may have former convictions, but who have fully rehabilitated and who have already served their time. All deserve a chance to go through their immigration proceedings from outside detention and to be reunited with their families and communities.
How do we support? We support immigrants by working with them and their family members to develop strategies, and support them to publicly promote their story, recruit allies and advocates from the faith community and work alongside their attorneys to gain release from detention.
Why is this important? We believe that all people are sacred across bars and borders and that detention is not necessary to the immigration process. Community alternatives and systems of release exist and people should not be held in detention for years or indefinitely as they seek due process. As people of faith we are called to act according to our values of compassion, love, and restoration by welcoming immigrants and helping them to integrate successfully in our society.
How can you help? You can help by supporting one of our Freedom Campaigns. Learn about the persons’ story. Take action to support someone’s freedom by making a call for someone’s release, participating in prayer vigils and legislative visits. You can support by elevating one of our Freedom Campaigns stories and by helping bring some light to a case.
Take action today below.
Join Mario’s Freedom Campaign Team (4/15/2021)
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Listen to Mario’s testimony: Clip: https://fb.watch/3JnqLtmeG2/
Learn Mario’s story and Share Toolkit: bit.ly/FreeMarioToolkit
Call or email the ICE Field Director officer David Marin and leave a message.
Instructions: Dial Phone Number: 213-830-5931 or email David.a.marin@ice.dhs.gov
Ask to speak with the ICE Field Director David Marin and leave a message.
Say this message: “Hello my name is _____, and I represent _____ (insert name of congregation/organization). I am calling to ask David Marin, Field Office Director to grant discretionary release to Mario Ramos # 4 AD, 105, 1 Low. Who, is held at the Adelanto Detention Facility. After being properly released from prison, he was transferred to Adelanto without notification and this was a violation of his rights. When granted his liberation, Mr. Ramos can contribute greatly to the community because he has a Certification in water treatment and he is counselor to people dealing with addiction. Furthermore, his mother needs his support to care for her and help her financially. We ask you to use your moral authority and grant immediate release to Mr. Ramos who over 10 years has restored himself and can fight his deportation case with his lawyer and be reunited with his family.”
Our focus to call is today, but please feel free to call anytime throughout this week.
Be safe, stay healthy and take part in transforming this time into a beautiful era.
To get involved, or for more information, contact:
Maria Guadalupe Ortiz
Freedom Campaign Coordinator
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity –IM4HI of Southern California, Inland Empire
mgortiz@im4humanintegrity.org
February 2022 Update: Mario is Free!
After over a decade spent separated from his mother and family, and a one year Freedom Campaign, Mario Ramos was finally released on January 27th after enduring double punishment as a result of collaboration between prisons and immigration detention centers. In 2018, Mario completed a seven-year prison sentence after showing exceptional efforts at recovery and rehabilitation. Instead of being allowed to return home, Mario was taken immediately by ICE and held at Adelanto Detention Facility.
At Adelanto, he had to unnecessarily spend 4 more years deprived of freedom. He survived COVID while in detention, feared he would be deported, and wondered if he would ever be allowed to come home. However, Mario never allowed these setbacks to distract from the progress he sought to make. Mario admirably remained committed to self-improvement and found ways to minister and support his peers while imprisoned and detained. Mario has prevailed through years of injustice, and we are thankful he will be able to return to a life of family and freedom. Thank you to the many of you who wrote letters directly to Mario to help him stay encouraged. Some of you wrote personal support letters that were presented to the judge and others held Mario up in prayer. Every action of support was a step forward to his release. Mario and his mother Dina send you their appreciation and blessings! Today, Mario’s joy and enthusiasm are contagious, and he is ready to use his story to educate others and help end the ICE transfers that cost him 4 years of his life.
