Dear Community Members,

Our immigrant communities are once again facing a moment of deep injustice. Across the country and here in New Mexico, immigrants are being brutally targeted and dehumanized. ICE continues to raid and terrorize our neighborhoods, and billions of dollars are being invested in violence, tear gas, detention centers, and walls rather than in care, education, and safety. 

These are attacks on our dignity, and they demand our collective response.

That’s why this Giving Tuesday, we’re asking you to donate to the Fronterizx Fianza Fund (Bond Fund) New Mexico’s only dedicated immigration-specific bail fund. Under the leadership of Contigo Immigrant Justice, For years, this crucial, volunteer-run program has paid immigration bonds to free people from unjust detention. The fund is now part of a powerful model that combines community bond support with direct legal representation, ensuring that no one remains detained simply because they cannot afford to pay.

The Fronterizx Fianza Fund is more than a fund; it's a shield of community, a tangible act of resistance. Your donation directly restores freedom and helps families reunite, rebuild, and heal.

Every contribution fuels our collective fight for a New Mexico where immigrant, LGBTQIA+, and mixed-status families can move, stay, thrive, work, and transform freely and without fear. Join us in the fight. Support liberation today.

Donate to the Fronterizx Fianza Fund contigojustice.org/fianzafund

The last week of November oversaw major changes in immigration policies and procedures. The unfortunate changes include the termination of TPS for Haiti and Burma (Myanmar), the Trump administration's announcement that they intend to re-review and possibly re-interview all refugee approvals from January 21, 2021 through February 20, 2025, and USCIS also announced that they are pausing all asylum application adjudications, effective November 27, 2025 for 19 countries that are considered "high risk." These so-called high-risk countries are a thinly veiled xenophobic attack on vulnerable communities, especially in light that asylees and refugees are heavily vetted throughout the immigration process.

In good news, a federal judge from New York granted a stay of the quiet recission of deferred action for individuals with approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). This means that USCIS must start granting deferred action to new applicants; individuals who already have granted deferred action can renew both their deferred action and their associated work permits; and USCIS must adjudicate any outstanding and pending Applications for Employment Authorization (I-765s). Another piece of good news is that Matter of Yajure Hurtado, a case where immigration bond was effectively eliminated for individuals who entered the country without inspection, has been temporarily overturned by a partial summary judgment in Maldonado Bautista v. Santacruz, which means that individuals who were not eligible for bond before because they entered without inspection may now be eligible to ask an immigration judge to release them on bond.

With gratitude and power,

Contigo Immigrant Justice & The New Mexico Dream Team