Author: Felicia Hyde

This year has been a big year. 

Through every challenge, every act of resistance, and every moment of hope, you — alongside hundreds of faith communities, immigrants leaders, and volunteers— have continued to show up with courage, solidarity and fierce love. In the face of mass ICE raids and deportations, detention expansion, political uncertainty, and the rise of white nationalism, your commitment has helped sustain a movement that refuses to give up on the dignity, safety, and belonging of all people. 

In a year marked by attacks on immigrant communities, threats to basic freedoms, and deep grief across the globe, your faithfulness has helped hold our communities together. Because of this collective commitment, we have accomplished more this year than before! And as we look towards 2026, we know the work only grows more urgent. 

IM4HI will be doubling down on our core commitments to:

• Empower families torn apart by detention and deportation
• Amplify a courageous moral faith voice for dignity, safety, and belonging
• Build a beloved community of care, healing, and collective liberation

To prepare for the work ahead in 2026, we have set a goal of welcoming 80 new monthly sustainers of any amount.

Monthly sustainers are the backbone of this movement: your steady support allows us to accompany families, organize rapidly, and meet crises with compassion and power.

Will you help us reach this goal?

Below, you’ll see where we’ve been—the impact our communities made possible this year—and where we’re going next as we continue building a more just and liberated future.

Where We’ve Been in 2025 

• Pro Se Legal Support & Court Vigil Organizing:

With your support, we launched our Legal Empowerment Initiative, hiring our first full-time legal aid staff member and advising 186 asylum seekers through one-on-one consultations, 20 pro se workshops, and additional training in the Bay Area and Central Valley. Over 60 clients received support applying for asylum and work permits, and 20 volunteers were trained to expand this vital work. At the Concord Immigration Court, 79 trained Welcome Navigators accompanied individuals and families so no one faced the system alone.

• Accompaniment/Housing Numbers

We piloted a summer housing program with the University of San Francisco, providing 20 asylum seekers with two months of safe housing, case management, transit support, legal consultations, and help accessing Medi-Cal and City IDSs. Through our Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Team (NEAT) program, we supported 63 faith-community volunteers in 14 accompaniment teams who walked alongside 28 newly arrived asylum seekers for at least six months of support and care.

• LGBTQ+ Asylum Seeker Support 

We deepened our efforts with LGBTQ+ Spanish speaking asylum seekers, offering dedicated community gatherings and healing circles led by trained facilitators, with seven regular participants.  We also hosted a culturally relevant self-defense workshop to promote safety and empowerment. 

• Reaffirming Sanctuary & Faithful Witness 

After the 2024 Presidential Election, we launched the Sanctuary People campaign, mobilizing over 500 people in Sacramento and engaging 300 more in a statewide webinar to demand that state resources not support ICE detention expansion. In February 2025, our Reaffirm Sanctuary press conference aligned with the Day of Remembrance vigil, honoring Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. Across three Bay Area courthouses, our faith-rooted vigils, trained 39 pod leads, and mobilized 244 participants, ensuring that families facing ICE court actions are met with solidarity, witness, and care.

• Pilgrimage & Public Witness 
  • This year, we took to the road to bear witness, lift up families, and call for justice. With Dignity Not Detention, we organized our fourth annual Convergence to Reclaim Our Dignity pilgrimage, gathering over 250 participants and 100 volunteers to stand with families impacted by detention and demand an end to illegal expansion.

In partnership with Interfaith for Palestine, we also led our second Right of Return Pilgrimage for Gaza, a 22-mile interfaith journey with 1,000 participants from 56 communities, raising nearly $20,000 for Gaza relief and local partners.

• Stopping detention expansion (Dublin, CA City)
  • We advocated against ICE detention expansion in California. When the federal government proposed repurposing the formerly closed federal prison in Dublin, we joined the ICE Out of California coalition, participating in monthly rallies and holding vigils outside FCI Dublin and California Coalition for Women Prisoners to oppose the reopening.

• Leadership Summit
  • In July, our coalition partners hosted a three-day leadership summit in Northern California, bringing together directly impacted community members from across the state. The gathering focused on developing organizing skills, building collective power, and strengthening efforts to stop deportations, support loved ones returning home, and end immigration detention. Participants shared that the space felt healing, welcoming, and transformative, offering time for learning, connection, and restoration. 

• Decarceration & Norco Correctional Facility Closure: 

After years of organizing with the CURB coalition, we celebrate the closure of Norco State Correctional Facility by fall 2026—an essential step toward reducing the over reliance and harms of incarceration in California and building thriving communities. We continue to work for releases, not transfers, and a humane, community-centered closure.

• Leadership transition

Where We’re Going in 2026 

Empower Families Torn Apart by Detention & Deportation 

In 2026, we will deepen our support for families impacted by detention and deportation by strengthening accompaniment, expanding legal access, and uplifting immigrant leadership.

• Supporting families with detained loved ones and advocating for their release
• Accompanying formerly detained leaders in campaigns to stop deportations
• Expanding pro se legal support and Spanish-language outreach
• Extending our work from the Bay Area into the Central Valley
• Growing healing circles for communities most impacted by ICE violence, including LGBTQ asylum seekers, formerly detained individuals, and Southeast Asian refugees
• Partnering with Dignity Not Detention and local allies to convene our 4th Directly Impacted Leadership Summit for 30+ leaders statewide

Reaffirm Sanctuary & a Courageous Moral Faith Voice 

As we move forward, we remain rooted in a truth carried by generations before us: sanctuary is sacred. Even as harmful policies strip away protections, our communities continue to lead with courage and moral clarity. We are committed to building a future where all people are sacred by:

• Expanding faith networks through weekly interfaith vigils at the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts
• Providing Know Your Rights trainings for directly impacted community members and faith leaders
• Hosting public actions—including prayer vigils, pilgrimages, and forums—to advance our campaigns
• Partnering with movement allies to stop detention expansion and oppose ICE’s violent enforcement, including ICE Out of Dublin, ICE Out of California, Dignity Not Detention, and Bay Resistance
• Organizing two major pilgrimages: the 3rd Annual Gaza Pilgrimage (with Interfaith for Palestine) and the 5th Annual Pilgrimage to Detention Centers (with Dignity Not Detention)

Build Beloved Community of Care & Collective Liberation 

As we move into the new year, IM4HI will continue to protect, enrich, nourish, and uphold the human integrity of all people. We will continue to build a beloved community grounded in spiritual values, and we will continue to center the leadership of people impacted by immigration, incarceration, and militarization. We are committed to this purpose in the following ways:

• Integrate art and culture into our campaigns, using poignant visual art, music, poetry, dance, etc to promote our values of dignity and safety for all
• Host our fourth annual Love Over Fear concert featuring talented local BIPOC musicians and powerful storytelling
• Expand our communications for the Spanish-speaking community, Camino de Esperanza, which seeks to create empathy and understanding across racial and cultural differences by giving voice to courageous immigrants sharing their stories of challenge and hope through live interview events
• Train community and faith leaders to be speakers and media messengers to lift up our narrative grounded in our values
• Launch our 2026-2030 Strategic Plan that includes our 150 year vision, 50 year milestones, and 5 year strategic directions to guide our work.

Support IM4HI & Become a Monthly Sustainer Today

We are living through a season which calls us to act. Families are being separated, communities are under threat, and the forces of fear continue to grow. Yet in the midst of it all, we believe— that love, justice and community will have the final word. 

Your ongoing support will become a steady, prayerful presence in the lives of families facing deportation, uncertainty. It allows us to show up not just once, but again and again—-just as our faith calls us to do. 

Monthly sustainers are the people who help hold this work when the moment is heavy, ensuring that compassion–not fear— guides our response. 

As we prepare for 2026, we are calling in 80 new monthly sustainers who can anchor this movement with faithful generosity.

Will you help hold this moment with us?

May 2026 be a year in which we continue to walk humbly, act justly, and love boldly— trusting that together we can build a world rooted in compassion, dignity, and justice for all!