Since its inception in 2018, the Project Corazon Travel Fund has helped hundreds of lawyers travel to the border, detention centers, and other key areas to help asylum seekers. Once people win their asylum cases, what happens next? Lawyers for Good Government Foundation helps people go the extra mile, literally. The Travel Fund has also been an invaluable resource to help us reunite families that have been separated at the border.
Here is one recent example of how the Project Corazon Travel Fund helped reunite a family.
Jose and Lizbet (father and daughter) fled certain death in El Salvador in the summer of 2019.
“Jose” and his 15-year-old daughter “Lizbet” (names have been changed to protect them) fled El Salvador during the summer of 2019. Jose had been stabbed by a gang member and made a police report. The gang member had deep connections with the police, and Jose was beaten by police on three occasions. Jose and Lizbet tried to move across the country to escape the violence, but the violence followed them, this time in the form of a drive-by shooting attempt. That’s when Jose and Lizbet decided to flee El Salvador to avoid certain death.
The U.S. government detained them in the “ice box.”
In a story that has become all too familiar, Jose and Lizbet arrived at the border in Matamoros, crossed the border and asked for asylum. They were held in an “ice box,” a detention cell where the temperature is kept low on purpose and the lights are kept on at all times. These are cells where asylum seekers often do not have access to soap, toothpaste or showers. People have died in the ice boxes. In February of this year, a court finally ruled that facilities like ice boxes violate the U.S. Constitution.
Jose and Lizbet were then forced to wait in a tent camp in Matamoros (Mexico).
Jose and Lizbet did not die in the ice box, but what happened next heaped insult upon insult. The U.S. governments “Remain in Mexico” policy, aka MPP (the misleadingly-named Migrant Protection Protocols), forced Jose and Lizbet to remain in Matamoros while they awaited a hearing on their asylum case.
They lived in the tent encampment with few basic provisions and continuing lack of access to sanitation or medical care. Clean drinking water is only available from volunteers who pull water in small wagons.
Matamoros is considered a Level 4 security risk by the U.S. State Department, which means “don’t go there.” And yet, thousands of people are living in Matamoros in tents while they await their asylum hearings.
Lawyers for Good Government Foundation helped secure a win for Jose and Lizbet.
Lawyers for Good Government Foundation’s Border Rights Fellow Kim Hunter in Brownsville represented Jose and Lizbet during their asylum hearing. This day, the outcome was mixed - Jose was granted asylum, but Lizbet was not. (Note: we’re not giving up on Lizbet’s case; we’re appealing).
Since she is a minor, she was released with her father, but she had to endure yet another night of detention at the border. While she was in detention, she was diagnosed with influenza.
The government wanted to quarantine Lizbet in detention, but Project Corazon objected. We offered to take responsibility for Lizbet, so she was released after only one additional horrible night in detention.
With your support, we were able to get Jose and Lizbet safely out of Matamoros, and reunite them with the rest of their family in the United States.
Lizbet needed time to recover from the flu, so the Project Corazon Travel Fund was able to house her and her father in a hotel for a few days until she regained her strength. Then we were able to fly Jose and Lizbet to Pennsylvania, where they joined family while they await Lizbet’s appeal.
Being represented by a lawyer during an asylum hearing makes the outcome 5 times more likely that the seeker will be granted asylum.
The Project Corazon Travel Fund enables Lawyers for Good Government Foundation to accomplish two important things:
Bring lawyers to the front lines to help asylum seekers directly; and
Make sure that when asylum seekers win their cases, they can get where they need to go. We will not abandon a sick child in detention, as the government proposed doing.
How You Can Help - Support the Project Corazon Travel Fund
Donations to the Travel Fund ensure that we are able to provide comprehensive help to asylum seekers. We’ll help with their cases, and then help them reach family from whom they might have been separated.
Can you make a donation to our Spring 2020 Travel Fund Campaign?
Another critical component of the Travel Fund is donated airline miles. We use frequent flier miles to arrange for travel for both lawyers and our clients who need to travel once their cases have been won. Pledge your airline miles to the Travel Bank.
Thank you for reading, and for your support. Together we can reunite and defend the rights of families like Jose and Lizbet.