Home is Here’s mission is to build community-based systems of support with newly arriving immigrants in the Gulf South. We believe that each person is a place of refuge for one another, and that bringing people into direct personal relationships is a critical and transformative step towards building community and systems-level change. In this way, Home is Here has been engaged in community-building through bridging activities for the past three years.

Louisiana is the incarceration capital of the world, and New Orleans has a history of strong criminal justice reform and abolition organizing led by Black residents most directly impacted by criminalization and incarceration. When criminal justice reform passed in 2017 freeing up prison beds, the state promptly converted these prisons into ICE detention centers. In this way, Louisiana now uses these prisons under ICE contract to incarcerate 25% of all immigrants detained in the U.S.

In this context, the stakes are high and the conditions are ripe to use bridging as a means to develop a strong multiracial base of immigrants and non-immigrants engaged in abolition / anti-detention work. Our Project will leverage the experience of BIPOC and immigrant-led grassroots groups that are already independently organizing for abolition alongside ally groups to build meaningful relationships in support of a common cause.

The Detention Visitation Project brings together people who identify as immigrants alongside those who do not identify as immigrants to build belonging and develop a strong base of individuals and allies engaged in abolition / anti-detention work in our region. Participants have a wide range (from little to extensive) of lived and other experience with and exposure to immigration, incarceration/criminalization, and organizing, mutual aid and other relationships of solidarity.

Participating groups are aligned with the values of anti-racism, abolition, and co-belonging and have some experience with and/or exposure to multiracial relationships of solidarity.

This Project will bring a cohort of diverse group partners and allies together to build trusting relationships between participants while organizing activities in support of people on the inside at two detention centers in Louisiana. During trips and gatherings, people will have a chance to learn about each other, debrief about relationships they are building with people on the inside, and strategize best approaches to support these relationships of solidarity through visitation, letter writing, and/or mutual aid support.

Detention Visitation Project

By Home Is Here Nola

Detention Visitation Project

Your support will allow us to continue to visit and connect with newly arrived immigrants seeking safety in immigrant detention centers in Louisiana.