“How can we plug in, and what can we do now,
to help Detainees / our Immigrant Community?”

Step #1:  Join great orgs!  

The key to long-term success in the Civil Rights Movement is to learn from those with expertise, join well-established orgs with a great track record, and to attend events/trainings!

Please sign up with awesome orgs like BIJAN, MIRA, ECCO, et al., to get their newsletter / email / event notifications!

Heads up:  There may be a delay before the next training or someone’s ability to respond to your form or email.  So I’ll give you this in the meantime.

Here are potential actions for you and your community.

Some support your local Immigrant community, while others help elsewhere.  All are needed.

BONUS: https://indivisible.org/resource/how-you-can-be-immigrant-ally-locally 

Thank you!  -Lauren

*  Step #2:  BIJAN Volunteer Form
*  Red Cards + Know Your Rights Pocket Guides

*  Know Your Rights training and practice sessions

*  Remote Accompaniment
*  Pen Pals with Detainees

*  Hotline work:  Detainee-facing and Family-facing

*  Sponsorship

*  Drivers and In-Person Accompaniment

*  Hosting Individuals and Families in homes

*  Fundraising for Bond and Commissary funds

*  Fundraising for Legal Aid Services

*  Supplies and Family Support

Step #2:  BIJAN Volunteer Form

Please ask anybody interested, even if they’re not yet sure how they can plug in, to fill in BIJAN’s Volunteer interest form!  
BIJAN is a great org connected to many others in MA.
This gets volunteers in touch with the point person for each bucket of work we do:

https://www.beyondbondboston.org/join

Red Cards + Know Your Rights Pocket Guides

Red Cards are Know Your Rights cards, and sort of "speak for you" in any interaction with police or ICE.  You can hold your red card up to the window or slide it under the door, and not have to say anything to them.  This is crucial during a panic-inducing moment, when anything you say could be held against you.  

Food Pantries, Houses of Worship, Organizations, Laundromats, Shops, and Libraries are all great places to have free Red Cards available to the whole community.
The more of us have, display, use, talk about, purchase, share, and otherwise spread the word about Red Cards, the less of an identifier they are for those being targeted, and the more donors there are to help provide enough Red Cards to those who need them the most! 

Organizations can share and swap these, to have each relevant language in stock:
If you do a bulk order in one language, and want to swap to get a stash in all / more languages. Lauren will gladly facilitate swaps / be a “hub” for distributing to orgs!

Heads up:  It is more cost-effective to order them online from https://redcardorders.com than to print them yourself, but both are options.

PDF files are available free on https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas in these languages:

April 2025 Update from Lauren:  

*I just formatted a bunch of “Homemade Red Cards” in additional languages 105+ so far!
I marked them with the caveat, “made using Google Translate,” “AnythingTranslate,” etc., when relevant.  Added useful links to each card.  https://linktr.ee/RedCardsMoreLanguages 

This is public-facing, so feel free to share with friends and orgs widely!

*Each language (official and unofficial Red Cards) is now also in a format that prints double-sided to make about 10 cards per sheet of paper.  Huge folder of Know Your Rights stuff in the drive folder, too.  Word and PDF formats in Google Drive folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n1CIJI1dXAAx_5jsQS79Qt05ug4OW3cD?usp=drive_link 

Know Your Rights training and practice sessions

There are excellent Know Your Rights training resources online, as well as trainers for Know Your Rights training sessions of varying depth.

Please share these resources freely in your community, to create as well-informed a base as possible.  Ideally, each person will know enough to not simply be an informed bystander, but to be a helpful In-Person Accompaniment volunteer!

Throughout the civil rights movement, we’ve had a need for practicing these skills, in addition to having knowledge about someone’s rights.  ex:  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) doing Role Play practice before integrating lunch counters and Freedom Rides, in the 1960s.  Either with a trainer, or in local groups, it’s a great idea for every ally to do some role-play, run through what say (and Not say!) during an ICE interaction, and what recordings / notes to take throughout.  The more of us know and rehearse this, the better we can help without causing legal problems for those being targeted.

Link to ECCO / BIJAN North Shore trainings for In-Person Accompany: __

Link to Pioneer Valley similar: __   Central MA similar:  __

Link to schedule mini training + Role Play practice with Lauren: FruitFly7@gmail.com 

“How to handle ICE Interactions” checksheet:  PDF “We Have Rights!”

Editable word doc (formats incorrectly in google drive): “We Have Rights!”

Link to great online Know Your Rights resources: https://linktr.ee/DiscoNight.Page1 

I’m sharing my personal linktree and its QR code, because it’s not an official organization.

No threats to 501(c)3, house of worship, etc., apply.  Public-facing and safe.

https://linktr.ee/ArtWithLaurenNoyes 

Remote Accompaniment – urgent need!

This is someone almost any volunteer can do, with a little training!
General idea:
        You zoom in (WebEx) and sit quietly, as moral support for a detainee. 
        You take notes, but don't talk.  They have a lawyer and interpreter, so that's all set. 

The notes and you showing up make a big difference. 

There's a little training but it's really accessible.  You shadow before you're solo. 

Letter-Writing + Pen Pals with Detainees

You write a letter about once every three weeks (more is great).  Sometimes they write back. 

You can use Google Translate to put it into their first language. 

Letters are scanned into digital format, which detainees access in black and white.

Hotline work - urgent need!

Multiple orgs throughout the state have Hotlines, and help is desperately needed!
It is very helpful to be proficient in more than one language, especially Spanish or Portuguese.
However, there are additional ways to help process voicemails and needs shared in messages.

Two buckets:  Detainee-facing  and  Family-facing

Hosting Individuals and Families in homes

Lots of regional / local orgs are doing this.  

It doesn’t have to be complex or all-consuming, either.

This is a growing need!

Regional coalitions:  In-Person Accompaniment, Trainings, etc.

In addition, there are local orgs, partnerships, and coalitions on the front lines of this work.

Based on your location and commute, members of your community may wish to join one of these regional hubs for in-person action, hotline work, mutual aid, trainings, etc.

Boston:  (mark on BIJAN volunteer interest form)

North Shore:  (mark on ECCO’s volunteer form)

Pioneer Valley:  (find a form from them)

        Central MA has started a coalition, and it’s growing (find link / form)

Sponsorship – urgent need!

It is ideal for each detainee in need to have their own Sponsor; a 1-to-1 relationship is ideal.

Anybody can sponsor who is a citizen, ____.  [ what other stuff needed? ]

Drivers and In-Person Accompaniment

Advanced training is required for In-Person Accompaniment!  

Simple pick up / drop off is simpler, but I still highly recommend training!
Touring the Court, Extra Know Your Rights practice, and Shadowing are strongly encouraged.

(can I share my “We Have Rights” checksheet as a resource? -L)

Fundraising for Bond and Commissary funds

BIJAN manages two funds to help detainees.  Donations go a long way, so any help you can give to activate potential donors and donor orgs would be wonderful:

Bond Fund:                        https://www.beyondbondboston.org/donate 

Commissary Fund:                 https://www.beyondbondboston.org/donate-2 

Fundraising for Legal Aid Services

BIJAN does not offer legal services, but we know that this is an urgent need for everybody in the system.  For most, Funding is the limiting factor!

Many Immigration Lawyers and Legal Aid centers are limited by incoming funds.

If you can help fundraise, recruit potential donors, write grants, etc., please consider helping provide more Legal Representation for our Immigrant Community.

Supplies and Family Support:

Prepping backpacks with supplies, helping source needed items (esp. diapers, stuff for little kids) for families, esp. if the main breadwinner is detained.  

Multiple orgs help with this.

[ I want to learn more about what support is needed for backpacks and perhaps giving encouraging letters to family members, but don't have that all ironed out yet.  The rest has a well-oiled machine w/ orgs, as do all the other options here. -L ]