Why Donate?

Legal representation is the single most predictive factor in whether a person will avoid deportation, secure more stable status, and achieve the right to remain in their community. Those who are represented by an attorney in deportation proceedings are 15 times more likely to present a defense and 5 times more likely to win their case in immigration court compared to those without legal representation.

Because immigration is civil—not criminal—court, however, the government does not provide legal counsel to those facing deportation. Instead, people facing removal are forced to find an attorney on their own, or else represent themselves. Those who are not represented in removal proceedings are ultimately less likely to prevail against deportation.

It typically costs between $10,000-$15,000 to hire a private attorney for a deportation defense case, and perhaps several thousand dollars more to pay for filing fees, forensic evidence fees, and interpretation costs related to deportation defense.

Of course, the threat of detention and deportation does not exist in a vacuum. Someone with vulnerable immigration status likely also faces barriers to lawful employment and the ability to earn a living wage, along with the threat of housing insecurity, food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare services. When a person's basic and immediate needs are not met, they are often unable to focus on a legal defense.

While there are organizations that offer free or reduced-cost immigration legal services, and various social programs that provide rent and utility assistance, healthcare services to low-income families, and food distributions, these resources too often remain outside the reach of many who need them. Community members may not be able to overcome technological or literacy barriers to access a particular program. They may not qualify for a service because they reside outside the geographic service area or lack the necessary documents. They might seek support at a time in which the program has reached capacity or exhausted its funding. Or, they may simply not be aware that a particular program or service exists. These challenges are compounded by language access issues, which are experienced most acutely by community members who speak “languages of lesser diffusion,” or a language spoken by an ethnic minority, often an Indigenous community.

Without support, many in our community struggle to navigate these various service systems and ultimately do not receive the assistance they need. This means that essential human needs of food, shelter, and healthcare go unmet, and families are separated by detention and deportation.

Pueblo Unido's eventual co-founders, Francisco Rodriguez and Cam Coval, identified these issues while working together in schools and food pantries in East Multnomah County after the first Trump administration took office. On March 26, 2017, Francisco was arrested by ICE without a warrant, becoming one of the first DACA recipients in Oregon to be detained under the first Trump administration. Fortunately, a massive public response led to his release, highlighting the power of collective action. You can read more about this story on our Pueblo Unido in the Press page.

After Francisco's release, both he and Cam were approached by families at the food pantry who sought help for their loved ones who had also been detained, but who were given hope by Francisco's story. The first family that Francisco and Cam supported were native speakers of the Purépecha language with roots in present-day Mexico. While the breadwinner of the family languished in ICE custody, the mother was left alone to fend for herself, her children, and to try to defend her husband. With limited ability to communicate in Spanish or English or to navigate technology or written applications, and without a vehicle or stable employment, she struggled to pay rent, access food assistance, and hire a quality and trustworthy deportation defense attorney.

Under the banner of a new community group called Pueblo Unido, Francisco and Cam organized with community members and educators in the Reynolds School District to raise funds for rent and legal fees and to deliver food boxes. They also scheduled and attended legal consultations alongside the mother, visited the breadwinner in detention, and collaborated with an interpreter of Purépecha to ensure that the family was able to understand and be understood in conversations with attorneys. After several months they were finally able to find a skilled attorney who agreed to take on the deportation defense case, and worked with the family to gather supporting evidence and letters from community members. In December 2017, the immigration judge granted the breadwinner's application for relief against deportation, and he was released from custody and reunited with his family with lawful permanent residence.

Just a few days later, a second family from the food pantry that Francisco and Cam supported in similar ways also won their case against deportation, and their breadwinner was released from detention with lawful permanent residence. These early successes in reuniting local families reinforced the impact of their work and emboldened Francisco and Cam to establish Pueblo Unido as a nonprofit in February 2018 with the aim of providing our loved ones and neighbors the best possible chance to prevail against deportation and feel safe and supported in their communities with their families.

Thanks to our community of donors, volunteers, clients, staff, and partners, we have served more than 15,000 individuals in 31 states across the country since our inception in April 2017.

• Through our Legal Navigation program, we have connected nearly 6,000 people to immigration legal aid.

• Through our Social Service Navigation program, we have provided financial assistance towards more than 180 rent and utility payments, and submitted more than 16,000 applications to financial assistance programs including the Oregon Worker Relief Fund, Quarantine Fund, Climate Change Fund, and Home Fund.

• Through our Community Engagement efforts, we have delivered nearly 600 workshops that provided over 5,000 individuals key information about legal rights, remedies, and resources; court proceedings and immigration documents; how to advocate for a detained loved one; how to implement a family preparedness plan; and how to process trauma.

• Through our partnership with the Collective of Indigenous Interpreters of Oregon (CIIO), we have provided Indigenous language interpretation during more than 1,000 appointments in legal, health, and community settings.

Your donations ensure that this work continues and grows. Whether you offer your time, knowledge, connections, or resources, your contribution is crucial to our collective work to keep families together, protect immigrant rights, and restore human dignity.

At a time when immigrant communities are facing escalating enforcement and uncertainty, this work is needed now more than ever. Since the second Trump administration took office, Oregonians have experienced an unprecedented level of surveillance, intimidation, and arrest by immigration officers, which has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of Oregonians detained for removal, and subsequently an increase in fear, anxiety, and demand for our services.

With specialized legal representation in acute demand, and with community members desperate to hire defense for their loved ones, scammers and other bad actors have jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of people in crisis. With constant changes to immigration policies and enforcement priorities, our communities are left struggling to understand their legal rights, relief options, available resources, and how to minimize risk and be prepared in the event that a loved one is detained. Language access gaps further compound these issues for Oregonians hailing from Indigenous communities in Mexico and Central America.

Our core programs are essential to meeting the needs of the moment: navigating community members to trustworthy attorneys and effective social services; sharing knowledge that empowers individuals to assert their rights, advocate for their families, and process their trauma; and, providing interpretation to ensure that Indigenous Oregonians are able to understand and be understood.

Pueblo Unido exists so that no one has to face these challenges alone. But the need is growing, and we can't meet it without you. Together we will continue to fill gaps in order to prevent detention and deportation, advance Indigenous language justice, and give our communities the tools they need to access various services in order to feel secure, achieve their goals, and to thrive.