 In 2010, Who Is My Neighbor? Inc. began two programs of neighborly care for immigrants facing severe difficulties: 1. Asylum seekers 2. Victims of human trafficking Asylum seekersPeople who fled a native country to escape religious or political persecution are normally placed in immigrant detention upon arrival in the USA. The trauma of detention often compounds the traumas that drove them out of their original countries. It usually takes six months or more until an immigration judge rules on whether to grant asylum; instead of waiting idly in prison-like conditions, asylum seekers could experience compassionate hospitality and neighborly care. Who Is My Neighbor? Inc. (WIMNI), in partnership with the Reformed Church of Highland Park (RCHP), offers a pilot program that allows the Elizabeth Detention Center to place some asylum seekers in an alternative to detention. Our program of community-based housing and social services assists asylum seekers with food, housing, counseling, transportation, community service opportunities, acculturation, and friendship. Detention costs the US taxpayer $122 per day per detainee. Community-based alternatives to detention cost about $12 per day, (Detention Watch Network, www.detentionwatchnetwork.org ) WIMNI is proving that welcoming the immigrant as neighbor is a cost-effective and humanitarian way to meet the government’s priority of keeping track of asylum seekers while their legal cases pend in the court. If you have a spare room in your house or apartment and would consider housing an asylum seeker, our program offers a stipend of $250 per month or more to the hosting family/individual. Volunteers are also needed to spend time with asylum seekers, in activities that will help them recover from trauma and acquaint them with American life. Victims of human tafffickingOne of the detainees ICE placed into our program had been a victim of human trafficking. Through him we learned of over eighty other victims who had been trafficked in the same incident of coerced labor. With RCHP, we held a paperwork clinic in October 2010 to assist these victims in writing down events of their ordeal, so that they could apply for relief provided by US law. More than seventy volunteers conducted the clinic and continue to be involved in efforts to assist these immigrants. WIMNI is working to illustrate alternatives to the government’s current strong reliance on detention. We need your help, in the form of donations, volunteering, and advocacy. Please contact jean@whoismyneighbor.net to find your role in this important work.Donate To WIMNI |