GENERAL DONATIONS
Your gift today will provide hope and compassion to detained immigrants and asylum seekers through volunteer visitation, resettlement assistance and advocacy. Thank you for your support.
Or mail donation checks to:
First Friends
53 So. Hackensack Ave.,
Kearny, NJ 07032
BOND FUND
Your donation will help detained immigrants leave the life-threatening conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, where they face a high risk of COVID-19 infection.
Even before the pandemic, the NJ-based immigrant advocacy group, First Friends, has helped scores of detained migrants pay court-ordered bonds to secure their release as they await their hearings. That effort is more critical than ever given the pandemic — but First Friends’ bond fund is almost empty.
More than 750 immigrants remain captive in northern New Jersey’s four Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Our goal is to raise $100,000 to secure the release of many more immigrants unjustly detained by ICE.
COMMISSARY FUND
COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. For those immigrants in ICE detention in northern NJ, their world is now much more stressful. With volunteer visitation suspended and detainees confined to their cells, many feel frightened and completely isolated.
That’s why First Friends of NJ & NY is asking for your help. We are launching a GoFundMe campaign to provide commissary funds to immigrants in detention in Bergen County Jail, Essex County Correctional Facility, Hudson County Correctional Facility and Elizabeth Detention Center. Commissary funds will allow them to make phone calls to family, lawyers and friends, and will allow them to purchase critical items. Commissary prices in jails and detention centers are notoriously high, and even those detainees that work at the facilities can rarely afford items. These funds will be vital in providing some comfort in their lives.
