Wish You Were Here
I wish you could have been with us at the Ohio Immigrant Alliance Family Reunion. It was a chance for us to come together after a difficult year, and there were some true heroes in that room.
People who fled apartheid in Mauritania and Guatemala, surviving kidnappers, animals, and dangerous terrain to exercise their legal right to request asylum.
People who exposed abuses from inside immigration jail, despite the risks.
A father who returned legally to the United States after being deported. A mother whose husband is in immigration jail, today.
We heard from Ayman Soliman, the children’s hospital chaplain who survived torture in Egypt and was granted asylum in the U.S., only to have his status illegally taken from him years later. While Ayman was in immigration jail, OIA worked with him and his advocacy team. Now Ayman is free, his asylum status restored. “No matter how much I do, no matter how much I work to support this organization, I will never, ever be able to pay the Ohio Immigrant Alliance back,” he said.
We have a lot more work to do. Will you make a tax-deductible donation to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance today?
We decided to hold a Family Reunion because we needed to take a night off and celebrate the fact that we are still here. We came together from around the state, from across religious and ethnic backgrounds, because we have one thing in common: Ohio is home and we want to keep it that way. We ate delicious food, listened to beautiful music, and enjoyed being together. But the work must go on.
Your donation today will keep the Ohio Immigrant Hotline up and running — so that people can reach out when their loved ones are detained, they need help finding an immigration lawyer, or just don’t know where to turn. We opened the hotline in January, and it’s truly become a lifeline for people across the state.
Your donation will keep the Immigrant Accompaniment Program running, so that people who are afraid of being detained at an immigration appointment or court hearing don’t have to show up alone.
You will support our advocacy to end the incarceration of people battling civil immigration cases. Immigration jail serves no purpose other than to take people away from their families, and make their immigration cases harder to win. We need rational immigration laws and policies, instead.
You will support our original research and arts programming. From analyzing the real impact of the administration’s incarceration and deportation policies, to projects like the “Ohio Is My Second Country” coloring book and #BraveOfUS Tattoo Contest, we have exciting things in store for 2026.
Please donate to the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, so we can keep our work going.
The immigrants who are part of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance family are brave and strong. They would do anything they can to take care of their families — just like people born here. At OIA, we believe immigration laws should be written with the understanding that migration is part of being human, rather than considering it a problem to repress or end. How can we facilitate it safely, with dignity, in a way that serves the needs of families and communities?
Geronimo Ramirez with Comunidad Sol, an indigenous-led group in northeastern Ohio, also spoke at our Family Reunion. Comunidad Sol is fighting for visibility and dignity, recognition of their basic humanity. “I just want to let you know that we still exist,” he said. “The Mayans have not disappeared. We are still here.”
Where you were born in Celina or Senegal, Ohio is home now. You are here, we are here for you, and with support from this community, we can keep doing our important work for years to come.
P.S. — If you missed the reunion, you can still pick up a commemorative t-shirt at our online store or Holiday Pop-Up Shop with Bomani Beauty MD on December 13, at Hexagon Books in Cleveland Heights. We’ll also have Fulani hoop earrings and Ohio Migration Anthologies available. Hope to see you there!
