Fund for Immigration Legal Assistance (FILA)
Welcome to FILA’s first periodic update. To those who have donated to the fund, we thank you for your generosity and your support of FILA’s work to defend our immigrant neighbors in Central Ohio.
Today we want to share with you one of the people who we have been able to help.
We introduce you to Alexander. Alexander is 18 years old. Both of his parents have died, leaving him without parental support. Alexander was helping an exhausted friend who was doing Door Dash deliveries in December, when ICE was very active. He was arrested on a minor traffic violation by a local suburban police department and was then turned over to ICE, a common, although not necessary action for too many state and local police departments.
Alexander was moved out of Ohio, making it more difficult for him to advocate for himself. In March, a judge set a bond of $7,500 for him to be released from detention. FILA was able to contribute $1,000 of his $7,500 bond. He was released within 48 hours of the bond being posted and has returned to Columbus. His lawyer is working on his case and Alexander is working on re-enrolling in school and finding work.
This is an example of your donations at work—helping an 18-year-old young man find freedom and return to his life.
FILA’s balance is down to around $7,500 and we have received 5 new applications for help in the past week. We want to be able to continue our work, but cannot do so without donations.
Are you in a place where you can make an additional donation to FILA?