• Are you or your loved one getting deported?
• Do you need help to locate a family member or report abuse in detention?
• Do you want to fight to keep our families together and our communities strong?

If you answered YES to these questions, Families for Freedom (FFF) is for you.

FFF is a lifeline for immigrant prisoners (detainees and deportees) and their loved ones. Few spaces exist for people facing deportation. We invite people into our monthly Family meetings, where we support one another, learn and teach together about the system attacking us, and plan actions and events. We organize campaigns around our loved ones cases, which combine community mobilization, legal advocacy, media work, and congressional outreach to build support and awareness. Our space is open to anyone and everyone directly facing and fighting deportation. We are one of very few groups in New York that works with immigrants being deported for past criminal convictions. In the New York area, the criminal justice system is the single largest referral point into deportation, with agents staffed at jails waiting to deport immigrants once they have finished their sentence.

We have responded to thousands of requests for assistance. We host support meetings and social events for our adult and youth members. We organize actions with former immigrant prisoners and families, and we are regularly featured in national and local media stories. Members of Congress have supported us in diverse ways - from initiating inquiries with the Department of Homeland Security to sponsoring public and private bills.

Casework is the foundation of our base-building. Families call FFF in crisis - searching for help to find a loved one detained in one of the 250 jails nationwide that hold detainees; looking for a lawyer to represent them in these civil proceedings that provide no public defender; or ready to knock the doors of Congress, in search of political support to stop their loved one's exile.

Our direct services include: helping families collect legal documents; orienting them in the detention and deportation systems; and identifying lo/pro-bono representation for the few eligible for relief. We also support our families' case campaigns by coordinating congressional and consular visits, drafting petitions, and connecting families with sympathetic media. We also prepare our families for outreach, with written summaries of their situations and solutions and practice runs in public speaking.

We have trained FFF organizers to conduct general intake with new families and conduct one-on-one consultations. We conduct intakes with over 400 new families annually. We recruit new members into monthly "family meetings" - a crucial space in which people confronting deportation come together to do everything from shed tears to strategize for change. It is a rare space for mutual support and base-building. We also hold group activities, like going to Great Adventures, retreats, summer barbeques, and an annual Holiday Party for our youth.  

Join Us:

If you are directly impacted by deportation and detention and would like to join us for monthly family meetings, please call 646-290-5551.