In fall 2023, the Cville Immigrant Freedom Fund (CIFF) board of directors decided to formally cease the organization’s operations. 

CIFF was incubated in 2019 by the Charlottesville Immigrant Resource and Advocacy Coalition, a grassroots effort that mobilized in 2017 to support immigrants in our community. We were incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit in 2020. In the four years of our activity, we collaborated with local and national partners to support families in obtaining freedom for individuals from ICE detention and provided immigration legal fee assistance to families.

None of this would have been possible without our donors and partners, as well as the fierce, ongoing dedication of immigration attorneys in the Charlottesville community and more broadly in Virginia, DC, and Maryland. It has been an honor to do this work with all of you. We wish particularly to acknowledge our important, long-term partnerships with Charlottesville-based attorneys Tanishka Cruz and Doug Ford, as well as with Child Health Partnership, as these collaborations were critical to CIFF’s work. 

CIFF has an ongoing obligation to the families whose financial contributions towards ICE bond remain outstanding. In order to assure that families receive their monies when ICE returns bonds, and additional returned bond is used for the original purpose, we are turning over these responsibilities to NorCal Resist, an outstanding partner organization in Sacramento, California.  

During the long months of Covid lockdowns, the folks at NorCal Resist were always available to post bond on behalf of CIFF when we could not do so. Our process for assuring the responsible and timely transition to NorCal Resist also includes colleagues from the National Bail Fund Network with whom we collaborated to support the dissolution process and succession planning. 

Should you wish to continue your support for families paying ICE bond, we encourage you to donate to NorCal Resist. Should you wish to support legal representation for adults and children in ICE detention or navigating our complex immigration system, we encourage you to donate to Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, which provides legal representation and other support for detained children and adults in the Washington, DC metro area.
 
Those who are seeking help with an immigration bond and/or support for someone held in an ICE detention facility within the United States may request a referral to an immigration bond fund through the National Bail Fund Network’s online referral form. And for those wishing to connect with local initiatives that provide different types of services and support for the migrant community in the Charlottesville area, Sin Barreras and Legal Aid Justice Center are working in this space. 

Thank you for all you’ve done on behalf of immigrant families, and for CIFF. Our work together was meaningful and necessary. Though immigrants in our community and beyond continue to need our support and solidarity, we’re deeply grateful for all that we have accomplished together over the past four years.