Immigrant mothers facing deportation in immigration court, and particularly those held in immigration detention, are in critical need of legal representation to help them be released from detention and gain safety and reunification with their children. NWIRP's Tacoma office reported in 2017 that 10% of the detainees at the Northwest Detention Center are women. At that time, the Detention Center had about 1,375 detainees, so approximately 137 women were being detained at NWDC as of December 2017. According to the directing attorney of NWIRP's Tacoma office, the vast majority of these women are mothers.

In 2017-2018, The Mother House Fund directed grant funding to support organizations providing legal advocacy and support for mothers and their children who are being targeted by inhumane immigration and deportation policies. After researching and meeting with a variety of organizations serving immigrant communities in the PNW, we decided to make a series of significant grant to support Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) and their "Keeping Families Together" program.

Our initial $35,000 grant in 2017 supported the team at NWIRP delivering on the requirements of the Murdock Trust "Keeping Families Together" challenge grant. This challenge grant required NWIRP raise $35,000 in 2017 to receive a Murdock Trust matching grant, and The Mother House Fund was honored to donate the full amount so NWIRP could meet their goal.

Our initial donation was a seed grant to motivate others to act. In 2018, we continued our commitment and helped NWIRP meet the final requirements of their challenge grant. The Mother House Fund offered our extended network a dollar for dollar match up to $35,000 in an effort to help NWIRP raise the final $79,000. Members of our team organized neighbors and friends for various house parties and together with our match, $79,000 was raised triggering a Murdock Trust challenge grant taking the total raised to more than 100,000 in 2018 for NWIRP's "Keeping Families Together" program.

Click here to donate directly to NWIRP to continue the momentum and support keeping immigrant mothers and their children together.