In Any Crisis, Always Look for the Helpers
Here is a spotlight on the Latin American Relief Fund, a nonprofit that helps migrants in Mexico.
I am sharing here a slightly edited version of the June 2025 newsletter from the Latin American Relief Fund. LARF is a U.S.-incorporated nonprofit organization that helps migrants making their way through Mexico — mostly in the form of providing financial support to a migrant shelter located in the city of Celaya in Central Mexico. Not only does this shelter, ABBA House (or “Albergue ABBA”), offer shelter and other services to people in transit, it is building a long-term facility to house migrants who decide to settle in Mexico.
The first piece in the newsletter is something I wrote a couple of weeks ago — in my capacity as a member of the Board of Directors of LARF — to summarize for readers what it is like at the moment to be an immigrant in the United States. Suffice it to say that my summary is already out of date and new horrors occur on virtually a daily basis. But I think it’s still a good (but which I mean harrowing) overview of a snapshot in time for migrants in the United States in the first six months of the second Trump regime.
Go to this link for a more user-friendly view of the newsletter. And click here if you’d like to make a donation to LARF.
JUNE NEWSLETTER
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE AN IMMIGRANT IN THE UNITED STATES RIGHT NOW?
by Careen Shannon
The year 2025 is as difficult a time for immigrants in the United States as any time in U.S. history. Immigrants are being used as pawns in an ideological push by oligarchs seeking to usher in an authoritarian form of government. This is leading to widespread suffering by average people in the United States — but it is immigrants who are suffering the most.
Below are just a few highlights of the new hardships facing immigrants in the United States in the first half of 2025.
Recent U.S. Policy Changes Affecting Immigrants
The U.S.-Mexico Border is Closed to Asylum Seekers. The Biden administration had sought to deter people from crossing the land border illegally by funneling asylum seekers to schedule appointments to enter the United States at official ports of entry through an app called CBP One. That process was shut down within minutes after Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, stranding thousands of migrants in Mexico, even those who already had an appointment scheduled for the following days or weeks.
International Refugee Admissions Have Been Suspended. Refugee admissions from other countries were also suspended on Trump’s first day in office. This means that displaced people around the world, including many stuck in refugee camps because of war and other crises, have been prevented from resettling in the United States.
TPS and Humanitarian Parole Have Been Cancelled for Hundreds of Thousands. A form of humanitarian protection called Temporary Protected Status previously extended to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans living in the United States has been revoked. Humanitarian “parole” protections extended to more than 500,000 more migrants have also been ended, which subjects these people to rapid deportation. This means that more than a million previously “documented” immigrants have now been rendered undocumented by the government’s own actions.
Immigrants are Being Arrested in their Homes or Communities With No Due Process. Across the country, armed but usually unidentified men in camouflage gear have been arresting law-abiding foreign nationals without the legally-required judicial warrant.
People Reporting to ICE or Attending Immigration Court Hearings Are Being Arrested. People who are complying with a legal requirement to check in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or who are attending scheduled hearings in immigration court, are being arrested when they show up as required.
People with Lawful Immigration Status are Also Being Arrested and Detained. There have been a number of high-profile arrests of students and professors arrested and detained for exercising their right to free speech. In addition, many other foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States legally — such as tourists, students, visa-authorized workers and even permanent residents — have been detained and/or deported for the smallest of inadvertent infractions, if any.
Foreign Students are No Longer Welcome. On May 22, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified Harvard University that its authorization to enroll foreign students was revoked. Then, on May 27, 2025, the State Department announced that it was pausing all student visa interviews at all U.S. consular posts around the world. The stated purpose is to revamp the visa application process to incorporate more detailed review of prospective students’ social media use. The practical impact (and presumably the actual purpose) is to derail the plans of thousands students around the world who have been planning to study at universities in the United States starting in the upcoming fall semester.
An Old Registration Requirement Has Been Revived to “Catch” Undocumented Immigrants. DHS is reviving a long-dormant requirement that all noncitizens present in the United States register with the government. Persons entering legally on visas, or who already possess work authorization or permanent residence, are already deemed to be registered. Undocumented immigrants are now being ordered to come forward and register — which serves to inform the government of one’s whereabouts, making it easier for ICE to find and deport them. Failure to register is a crime, and can subject a person to prison and deportation. So it’s a classic damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.
Thousands of Immigrants Are Being Deported to Foreign Prison Camps. Most egregiously, thousands of immigrants have been deported to a notorious prison camp in El Salvador, on the flimsiest of pretexts and in violation of required legal procedures. The Trump regime has flouted court orders to provide the legal justification for these deportations.
What You Can Do
For those who care about the plight of immigrants, the relentlessly bad news can feel overwhelming. The reprehensible violations of immigrants’ rights outlined above are only the tip of the iceberg — and represent just the worst of what has occurred during Trump’s first four and a half months in office. It’s enough to leave one feeling despondent, wondering what any one person can possibly do to help.
Here in Mexico, migrants heading in both directions — both north, toward the United States, or south, toward their countries of origin — suffer incredible hardships along the way. In addition, more and more migrants forced to flee their homes in Central America, South America and further afield are seeking humanitarian or asylum status in Mexico.
Shelters like Albergue ABBA are critically needed because they provide shelter and safety, as well as social, psychological and medical assistance, to the transitory migrants who find their way there during their journeys. Albergue ABBA also offers legal assistance to those seeking to remain in Mexico, and is in the active planning stages of building a new shelter to meet the needs of long-term immigrants.
I am proud to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Relief Fund, and hope that people reading this will consider making a donation so that we can help the Albergue ABBA migrant shelter keep its doors open in the face of funding cuts from other sources.
If you are looking for a concrete way to help migrants, donating to LARF is something constructive you can do.
MESSAGE FROM LARF’S PRESIDENT
In late April, LARF Board member Rebecca Eichler and I took the award-winning documentary Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis on the road as a fundraiser for ABBA House. As a former immigration attorney who worked with migrants and refugees at ABBA House and along the U.S. border, Rebecca played a major role in the film. Everywhere we went, the film and Rebecca were enthusiastically received by audiences. The screenings were resounding successes: we raised nearly $10,000, which will help offset the $44,400 ABBA House lost in USAID funding. We also added more than 300 people to LARF’s email list.
We are so grateful to the many LARF allies who hosted us and to those who attended the screenings. A big thanks to Lesley Burvill-Holmes and Richard Bevan for hosting a private screening and reception at their condo and to Barbara Bennett and June Hayakawa-Fung, our hosts at Plymouth Church in Seattle. Thanks also to Ashley Barkoudah and Branden Ladebush for organizing the screening in Boston, and to Miki Matrician, Chair of the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, for hosting us.
In Peterborough, NH, the screening was hosted by longtime LARF/ABBA supporters Bev Spiro and Mike Lambert. It was particularly fun. After hosting Rebecca and me at a luncheon with prospective donors at noon, a lively and engaged group packed the house for the screening at the Peterborough Community Theater that evening.
A few days later, Dr. Zoey Phillips organized a full house for a screening and reception at the Broadway Presbyterian Church in upper Manhattan, which was attended by a number of immigration attorneys and advocates. It was exciting to hear during the Q&A how much resistance participants were mounting, and gratifying to facilitate connections among activists.
We are especially pleased with the support provided by Pastor Julio Hernandez, Executive Director of the Congregation Action Network, which advocates and organizes for immigrants' rights. Rebecca participated in several events at churches in the Washington, DC metro area. Thank you to Pastor Leah Grundset Davis at Ravensworth Baptist Church and Pastor Cynthia Lapp of the Hyattsville Mennonite Church. Given what is going on in the U.S. right now, the Q&As after the film were particularly poignant. Audience members expressed a lot of frustration and anxiety over the administration’s policies and wanted to know how they could help.
Lastly, a big shout-out to all of the LARF supporters who hosted Rebecca and me in their homes!
Judith Gille
BREAKING GROUND ON THE NEW CCHR SHELTER:
A VISION FOR HOPE AND TRANSFORMATION
Last year, the city of Celaya donated an acre of land for ABBA to build a new, larger shelter community that will eventually serve up to 200 people or more. The mission of our new center is to create a safe, inclusive space that champions dignity and human rights for the many migrants now choosing to remain in Mexico, and especially those with disabilities.
THIS TRANSFORMATIVE NEW SPACE WILL PROVIDE:
An infirmary to meet critical medical needs.
A rehab gym for amputees to rebuild strength.
Educational and job training programs to empower futures.
Safe, inclusive housing for migrant amputees, families, and LGBTQ+ people.
Mario Lopez, the architect LARF hired to design and oversee the building of ABBA’s new Cultural Center for Human Rights (CCHR) shelter community in Celaya, has been working diligently to get engineering studies, inspections and permitting done so we can break ground on the CCHR later this summer. Pastor Ignacio and the Board of LARF are eager to rebuild the wall around the property since trespassers have been cutting down trees and helping themselves to parts of the few remaining buildings.
In order to break ground this summer we need to raise $100,000. A generous donor has offered a match of up to $50,000 in donations received before September 2025. Your support will go
TWICE AS FAR if you make your gift TODAY!
Since 2018, the Latin American Relief Fund has raised over $370,000 to support ABBA House, a vital migrant shelter in Celaya, Mexico.
Thanks to our generous donors, we raised $60,000 in 2020 to help Pastor Ignacio purchase the current ABBA House shelter. Since then, we have provided food, shelter, clothing, and critical medical and legal services to more than 250,000 immigrants and refugees from around the globe. We’ve also helped over 65 amputees receive life-changing medical attention, prostheses, and rehabilitation services.
Today, with more than 34 long-term residents, the original shelter is running out of space.
For more information, to make a donation or to join LARF’s mailing list, go to latinamericanrelieffund.org.
Your support could mean the difference between survival and transformation for thousands of people.
Join us to be part of this life-changing journey.