Community Support For Project Relief

Current Campaign: 

We are heartbroken to share this. An entire immigrant family from Portland has been taken by ICE.

A mother and her three children were detained and removed from their home, their schools, and the community that loves them. First, ICE detained the mother along with her 14-year-old and 16-year-old children. When their 19-year-old sister traveled to visit , she was also detained.

The mother and the two minors have already been transported to Texas. We still do not know where the eldest daughter is being held. We cannot imagine the fear she must be feeling. These are our students, our neighbors, and our friends. 

The two younger children attend  Portland public schools. The oldest daughter attends a local college. Their teachers and classmates are devastated by this news. 

One teacher described her student as a young girl who speaks many languages, who is always smiling, and who is always helping others. Today she is sitting inside an ICE detention center instead of a classroom. This is one of the most heartbreaking cases we have witnessed because an entire family has been detained at once. They came to this country seeking safety and a better life. Instead they are facing detention, fear, and separation. Their apartment in Portland is now empty.

This family needs us.

They have been taken far from home and urgently need legal representation for the mother, the minors, and the 19-year-old daughter. We are calling on our community to come together and help us hire a lawyer for all four family members. Every contribution matters. No matter how much you give, it will make a difference. For those who can give more, we are asking you to consider giving $100  or more so we can meet this goal quickly.

Please share.  

(This is our long-standing Community Fund Campaign for Project Relief) New donations will go to support this family legal fund.)  Any extra funds will support other families who have been impacted by ICE. Everyday, ICE is terrorizing our community and we must fight for immigrants. A new report shows that since January 2025- November 2025, 725 immigrants have been abducted by ICE in the state of Maine. The numbers will continue to increase and we must be ready to offer our support.

Details about the Community Fund: 

We are young Black immigrant organizers. We don’t have institutional backing or wealthy donors behind us, just community, courage, and the determination to never leave our people behind.

Since 2019, Project Relief has been a support line  for immigrant and Black communities across Maine. We’re on the frontlines, fighting systemic racism, resisting ICE, protecting families. 

This year, ICE has intensified its targeting of our immigrant neighbors. Since the beginning of March 2025, we have already hired lawyers for seven immigrants who were violently detained by ICE. Without legal support, they could have been left to languish in detention for months or even years. Instead, because of this fund, they now have legal representation to fight for their freedom and the chance to return home to their families.

These funds don’t stop at hiring lawyers. They allow us to post bail so people can reunite with their loved ones, and they cover critical after support such as rent, groceries, baby supplies, transportation, and other essentials that families need to survive when a loved one is detained. When ICE detained a father earlier this year, leaving behind a mother and her two-month-old baby with nothing, we didn’t wait , we acted. We covered four months of rent so they wouldn’t lose their home. We partnered with Coffee By Design to rally community support.

We’ve sheltered more than 40 people, including children who had nowhere else to go. We’ve delivered groceries to elders and unhoused neighbors who had no food. We’ve prevented evictions, pushed back against white supremacist threats, and responded in real time to ICE raids,

keeping our community informed, protected, and never alone. We have hired many lawyers to fight for immigrants who were detained. Because of this work, many families have been reunited and returned home safely. And we don’t stop there.

This is mutual aid: direct, fast, rooted in love, and led by us. Your donations go toward helping detained immigrants with bail, legal fees, and after-support; supporting families left behind with the essentials of survival; providing for community members who are struggling; and sustaining the capacity it takes to keep showing up in these urgent moments. 

Your generosity makes all of this possible.

This is resistance. This is love. We show up because we know what it’s like to be forgotten.

Thank you for standing with us.

(This is our long-standing Community Fund Campaign for Project Relief since 2020) 

- Please consider becoming a monthly donor to help us continue this work. Thank you.