Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy and how RAICES Showed Up – Faisal Al-Juburi, Chief External Affairs Officer for RAICES

On the 36th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Faisal Al-Juburi. Faisal is a strategic partnerships specialist with more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector. He currently serves as the Chief External Affairs Officer for RAICES, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency founded in 1986, and the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas.

Faisal is the son of Iraqi immigrant parents. He was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Little Rock and D.C. His parents taught him about the power of servicing others from a young age and Faisal has carried these values with him through his work in philanthropy. Throughout his work with RAICES, he has seen the non-profit grow and take on a leadership position in the immigration rights movement. Their work in 2018 during Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy, which resulted in the separation of hundreds of families, was pivotal in their growth and all of the work they continue to do today.

With legal and social services, paired alongside litigation and advocacy for systems change, RAICES is operating on the national frontlines of the fight for the rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

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Chief External Affairs Officer

RAICES

"RAICES represented 13 families in a suit against Geogroup which is a private prison contractor. People need to know that these ICE detention centers are immigration prisons that are run by private prison contractors. Family separation is a function of U.S. Immigration policy and is not only specifically what happened under the Zero Tolerance policy of the physical tearing apart of mother from child but the intention of it - to make you give up. You’re breaking people off from their support system and from their ecosystem. It’s breaking people down and we see it in very many ways. We see it continuing now where there’s been a very troubling pattern of fathers at the border being separated from their spouses and their children, of them being taken in and charged for criminal trespassing while the rest of their family goes into the immigration system. Sometimes it can be a minimum of months until they’re reunited."

– Faisal Al-Juburi

You can keep up with RAICES Texas on their website, Instagram and Facebook. You can also make a donation here and volunteer here. Follow Faisal on Linked-in . Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

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