When ICE shows up, a new group comes to the aid of immigrant families

Immigration woes upended Maria Perez‘s preparations for her youngest child’s birthday last month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement unexpectedly detained the mother of three when she showed up for a routine check-in, just a few days before her 1-year-old’s party.

“There were plans, excitement, and small details prepared with love. But the celebration never happened. Instead of balloons and cake, there were tears,” read a GoFundMe to support Perez, who has been in ICE custody since Feb. 12.

Her fundraiser, which has raised more than $3,000, was organized by a growing grassroots organization that formed last year: Montgomery County Immigrant Rights Collective.

About 1,000 volunteers have joined the group’s efforts to help immigrant families in Montgomery County cope with the upheaval caused by the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.

Since last fall, the mutual-aid network has raised about $500,000 for roughly 200 families whose loved ones have been detained by the federal government. ICE agents have been active in Montgomery County, where 1 in 3 residents is foreign born. Advocates and local politicians fear a surge is coming soon.

The Rights Collective’s most visible work are the GoFundMe campaigns.

“It is direct. It’s nimble. It’s quick,” said lead organizer Jaime Koppel.

At least 10 fundraisers at the moment are helping immigrant families to meet basic needs, including rent payments, utility bills and money for attorneys. Group members also help by delivering groceries and finding competent immigration attorneys for families, Koppel said.

A representative of GoFundMe did not respond to requests for comment.

‘He leaves behind a daughter‘

The Rights Collective formed after volunteers began canvassing neighborhoods to ensure immigrants knew about their rights when confronted by ICE.

Koppel said her group’s work gives lie to the Trump administration’s claim that its enforcement efforts focus on hardened criminals.

“These are folks who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said of detained immigrants. “They’re usually on their way to work, on their way to church, on their way to drop their children off to school.”

The stories the group shares on its GoFundMe campaigns highlight families’ financial and emotional hardships. Sometimes, to protect their privacy, they will change recipients’ names and obscure their faces.

One calls attention to a 5-year-old boy who longs to reunite with his mother, who is being held in a detention facility in Arizona.

Another raises funds for the wife of a man deported to Guatemala after ICE caught up with him at a Lowe’s. His wife is now parenting a 9-year-old boy alone.

A third was posted to help the Silver Spring family of a deported father.

“He leaves behind his daughter, an 8th grader at Silver Spring International Middle School,” the GoFundMe page reads. “She had only recently arrived in the United States — on her 14th birthday — hoping to finally be reunited with her father.

“After just a few short months together, she has now been separated from him again.”

Jill Ortman-Fouse, a Silver Spring activist and former member of the Montgomery County Board of Education, who volunteers with the Immigrant Rights Collective, said the sum the group has raised is a testament to the community.

“Everybody in their own way is trying to do what they can to stand up for our community,” she said. “That level of generosity speaks to how important our immigrant neighbors are.”