For nearly a year, I have volunteered pro bono services to migrants in detention. In fact, just about a year ago I took up my first case and in the next few days that detainee — V.D. for anonymity — will finally be set free after 14 months caged in the Aurora ICE Detention Center.
But winning freedom and being free are different things.
That is where a whole ecosystem of nonprofits helping detained migrants has really provided a light in the otherwise dark world of immigration policy under the current administration. From legal representation to paying bonds and providing a safe place to get your bearings, these groups have been a safety net for people already ground down by unspeakable cruelty.
When I met V.D., I knew nothing about immigration law. But he had applied for legal help through the Rocky Mountain Immigration Advocacy Network. I had gone through their training, been assigned a mentor, and needed to get started.
I had never been inside the Aurora ICE Detention Center before meeting V.D. for the first time. I did not know that “center” is a misnomer, it is a prison in every sense of the word. Metal detectors, guards, heavy steel doors that open remotely, cramped visitation spaces and inmates in color-coded clothing. It is almost no different than any other prison the GEO Group, a private prison company making a fortune on the immigration crackdown, operates.
I have been back dozens of times since. I actually forgot that it has almost been a year, but V.D. did not. He knew the exact day in the middle of last June that I first showed up. Despite my utter lack of immigration experience or knowledge, apparently I carried the first bit of hope for him into that prison.
That is a heavy burden. I could not have born it alone, not without RMIAN and my mentor from the DU Immigration Law & Policy Clinic, professor Elizabeth Jordan. I may have written the briefs and made the court appearances, but I could not have done it without their guidance. From preparing the merits hearing (V.D. won protection from deportation under the United Nations Convention Against Torture) to a habeas corpus petition (a federal court ordered a bond hearing) to making the argument for an attainable bond figure, I emailed and called and texted multiple times a week.
And it worked. But that is where their work ended and I found other nonprofits to step in.
For example, as I mentioned, V.D. has been imprisoned for more than a year. Any bond — the statutory minimum is $1,500 — is out of reach for many detainees. Into that void the Immigrant Freedom Fund has reached out to help detainees. Led by volunteers, they build the bridge between legal freedom and actual freedom.
IFF not only provides grants for bonds, but also expertise in navigating the labyrinth to make payment. Even as an attorney, I found the system perplexing and without much guidance. It is nothing like ordinary bonds for criminal cases. Like much of the current immigration environment, it seems set up to keep detainees locked up. Given their experience though, IFF knows how to step through the hoops.
But with the flood of migrants being detained, getting relief from federal courts, and then having a bond set, the IFF volunteers are struggling to keep up with the demand.
For example, an immigration judge set V.D.’s bond Tuesday. I called IFF right away and got a call back after hours. They started the work immediately, but warned they may not have funds to release him for several weeks. There were others in front of V.D. and a lot of the organization’s funds were already tied up in bonds for freed migrants awaiting court dates.
They will be making a donation push this coming week to close that gap.
Luckily I have access to a community of caring individuals who raised the money in less than a day. Because IFF is a 501(c)(3), the donors get a tax break and, when the bond is returned, IFF will get to reinvest that money for someone else down the road.
Sadly, we also have to wait on ICE to do its job. Bond was set for V.D. on Tuesday. An application for payment was sent Wednesday. Two days later, ICE had still not approved the payment. That means V.D. will sit confined for at least another two days over the weekend.
When he gets out, he will be dumped out the back door into an industrial area northeast of Denver. Even getting to a phone would be hard if it were not for a third organization, Casa de Paz. The Colorado Sun recently ran a lengthy article highlighting Casa de Paz’s good work.
And I mentioned them when I wrote about another detainee I helped free. What went unmentioned in that article was that it was V.D. who put me in touch with M. — another migrant from another part of the world who spoke an entirely different language. When M. got out, he got picked up, fed and put in touch with his family by Casa de Paz, all while I waited at the ICE counter in the front.
If I am not there to pick up V.D., I have told him to look for the white Casa de Paz van.
Over the past year I have heard many Coloradans and Americans despair that they do not know how to effectively work against ICE and the administration. These organizations give them a path.
Volunteer for RMIAN.
Give money to IFF.
Donate clothes to Casa de Paz.
By doing that, you will be helping people unjustly detained under awful policies return to their lives and to freedom. And real freedom is the ultimate form of resistance.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on BlueSky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.
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