Contigo—With You
Coalition for Immigration Justice, tackling our broken and inhumane immigration system by “accompanying” asylum seekers in Arizona who need help during and after their release from detention.
Contact: [email protected]
To Support Contigo
Go to the MVUU Donate page:
Select “Other” and remember to type “Contigo” in the memo line.
Check Out Our Successful
Contigo GoFundMe Campaign
Campaign page (2021):
Contigo means “with you.” Together we accompany asylum seekers on their path. Upon presenting themselves in the United States requesting asylum, asylum seekers, are placed in prison/detention until their release from incarceration. Their release make take several months to years. While in detention, our Contigo team establishes relationships through personal visits and written correspondence. In order for them to be released they often need a sponsor and a place to stay. Contigo finds sponsors and temporary homes. As they adjust to their new lives upon release, we provide necessary resources to help them get settled in the Tucson community. This is called accompaniment, Contigo’s primary mission.
Will you support Contigo? Here’s how:
> Volunteer in other ways, such as: shopping, sharing meals, transportation, companionship
> Ready to volunteer? Email [email protected].
Learn More About Contigo and
Asylum Seekers:
A Contigo Success Story
- A young couple seeks asylum and is released after seven months in detention.
- A family from MVUU agrees to house them for several months.
- The couple, with the support of Contigo, overcomes various bureaucratic hurdles.
- The couple is granted asylum.
- Today their future seems bright. They are now searching for jobs, learning English, and are beginning their lives in the United States.
This is just one couple out of thousands who have been waiting behind bars or now are huddled at the border in Mexico, having legally requested asylum.
Your generous donation to Contigo will help launch someone into their new life here in the United States. Your money will help to fund groceries and transportation. It will furnish a cell phone, clothing, and incidentals.
Contigo Achievements
In our first two years…
- Currently we are accompanying a Haitian family with a small baby and a mother with serious health issues.
- Most recently we have housed and accompanied two Haitian young men who are beginning their new lives in the New Jersey in the US.
- Housed a Russian couple for over 5 months, thanks to an MVUU couple who hosted them.
- Sponsored at least two dozen asylum seekers, enabling them to be released from detention
- Successfully supported an asylum seeker from Venezuela. She is now settled in New York with her husband!
- Created Cartas Contigo where volunteers write to incarcerated asylum seekers in Arizona detention centers, helping them feel less isolated.
- Successful fundraising where we raised over $27,000 in 2020 and
2022 - Successful collaboration with Casa Alitas and the Center for Victims of Torture on complicated asylee cases.
