Giving Compass' Take:

• Center for High Impact Philanthropy offers ways donors can fund services for the separated migrant families. Most of the services listed provide much needed legal assistance to the families. 

• How can donors expand these efforts to reach immigrants not directly involved in the migrant crisis but who still need legal help?

• Read about the philanthropic strategies to support refugees and asylum seekers. 

Over the past weeks, over 2,000 minors were separated from their parents/guardians at the southern border of the United States. Disturbed by the images and reports of children separated from their parents, people across the country and around the world are asking, “How can I help?” Here we outline the immediate needs and ways donors can help.

Fund Legal Services such as the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law and RAICES which has been working in Texas since 1986 to provide free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children, families, and refugees. Financial support to these two organizations can help to defray the cost of travel for volunteers that may not otherwise be able to provide their time and expertise.

Additional Legal Services 

  • The Hispanic National Bar Association provides grants to attorneys to defray the costs of legal representation for immigrants, including detained bond hearings and asylum cases.
  • Immigrant Defenders provides defense services to nearly 600 immigrants annually and also provide legal education classes and screenings for approximately 1,300 unaccompanied children each year.
  • CARA, a collective formed by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, provides detained families with pro bono legal representation.
  • KIND staff and pro bono attorney partners nationwide represent unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings.

Shelter, Care & Information Services

  • HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) & HIAS PA work to protect refugees and help them rebuild their lives.
  • Asylum Access has been working in Mexico since 2015. Through five offices across the country, the organization devotes its efforts to making refugee families aware of their choices and rights.

Read the full article about how donors can help migrant crisis by at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy