Many of us have an immigration story, whether past or present. Immigrant Advocates of Barron County (Wisconsin) exists for residents to share our stories and help our neighbors. We stand with the immigrants of today because most of us are the immigrants of yesterday.
Immigrant Advocates is a "purple" group. By this we mean that it's meant to be a safe place to learn and grow in understanding of others' perspectives and needs and their relationship to our community, especially as it relates to immigration. We need and welcome people of all political affiliations who are willing to be advocates for immigrants in our community.
We hold regular meetings on the second Sunday of every month, usually by video conference at 2 p.m. For more information about our meetings, visit our Events page or contact us at ia.barroncounty@gmail.com to join.
WE ARE CURRENTLY ADVOCATING FOR THE REUNION OF SOMALI-AMERICAN FAMILIES KEPT APART BY U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY -- HERE'S HOW to HELP:
New GoFundMe just launched: Separated Somali-American Families of Barron, WI - https://gofund.me/ce9d2ee2
Help the waiting families with legal costs to facilitate their reunion! A new "Fundraising" page will be posted soon with details. Thanks for your support!
watch the film separated somali families --
click on the "documentary" tab at the top of the page!
January, 2023 update:
The advocacy letters below garnered no responses, other than a single form letter from USCIS announcing they could not communicate with us on this issue. And like any other immigration advocacy organization working on the issue of refugee family separation, we saw next-to-no progress and precious few reunions (five individuals from two families) in the first half of the Biden Administration--an enormous disappointment based on their campaign promises.
HOWEVER, two recent developments hold hope:
The possibility of becoming a community partner in remote resettlement if we can create a non-profit capable of sustained case management work.
The launch of Welcome Corps (see https://welcomecorps.org/ ) with Private Sponsor Groups (PSGs) of 5 people or more agreeing to sponsor a single refugee family. Barriers include the current inability to specify which family the group wants to host, a lack of clarity about whether those refugees currently in the I-730 visa processing pipeline would be eligible, and the need for each PSG to have $2,275 on hand for each arriving refugee.
Please contact nancy@immigrantadvocatesbc.org if you are able to provide financial or practical support for these efforts.