I enjoy serving as a driver, taking immigrants to the airport mainly. Having that larger amount of time gives me an opportunity to talk in depth with them and their plans. I’ve made personal connections with a few. That’s what keeps me coming back to the Welcome Center. As a driver I get to give them their final “push” and goodbye, dropping them off at a TSA checkpoint at Seatac Airport. They are so grateful for AIDNW’s help. It is nice to know that I’m giving them one of their first few positive and personal impressions of Americans, contrary to what they’ve probably experienced in the Border Control, ICE and judicial systems. We’ve been able to joke on the way to the airport. Tension can get released. Yesterday a Mexican man whom I was taking to the airport responded to me after I said something about his airplane trip being the last hurdle till he could start his new life be with his family. He responded saying he already was in his new life and from then on everything was looking up. I like that AIDNW allowed him to feel that way.
AIDNW is a wonderful non profit to volunteer for. I’ve been volunteering for over two years and I look forward to every shift. I feel so for I ate to greet the immigrants who are released from the ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. They are so happy to be out and going to see their families and friends and start their lives or contigo ir their lives in the US.
We give them, backpacks, toiletries, food and water, charge their phones or let them use the AIDNW phones to call their loved ones. We help with finding the best ticket prices and print the boarding passes. Then our volunteer drivers take them to the airport or directly to the airport.
They are grateful for our assistance and many of their stories are very courageous. I feel humbled and fortunate to assist in this part of their journey.
I have been working with AIDNW for almost 2 months and I've loved everything about it! From connecting with volunteers, visiting detained immigrants, and leading events, AIDNW strives to raise awareness of immigration issues and works hard to provide as much support to detained (and released) migrants.
AiDNW is a nonprofit that brings me closer to the stresses and difficulties of immigration. I volunteer at the Hospitality House where folks who are released from the detention center can stay until their travel plans are completed. My job is primarily organizing/shelving donated items, and keeping the bedrooms clean and prepared for guests. The hidden blessing of working at the house is having some amazing conversations and making some really special friendships with immigrants. It has been inspiring to hear the bravery and determination of those who make the journey and leave all they have known behind. I feel so privileged to have a small part in supporting and welcoming our new neighbors to the USA.
I have volunteered at AIDNW regularly this summer and have been truly amazed by the generosity, kindness, and helpfulness of my fellow volunteers and the office staff. Organizationally, they are very flexible and you can work around your schedule. Professionally, there is a wide range of expertise in different fields among volunteers and many have exceptional foreign language skills. And the impact is obvious and essential. Upon being released from detention, immigrants are sent out onto the street in the middle of the Port, with their belongings in a trash bag and no transportation, shoelaces, water, food, or way to charge their phones. Without AIDNW, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to reach the airport, let alone their families and/or friends. ICE requires many immigrants to check in with a judge in the city their address is registered in, yet provides no assistance in getting there. The services AIDNW provides are vital to immigrants successfully surviving and integrating themselves into their new community. Although volunteers are not paid, it is a fulfilling and rewarding experience to see the gratitude on their faces, shake their hands as they leave for the airport, and hear the joy in their family members voices upon finding out that they have been released and will soon be reunited.
I have been volunteering for AIDNW for about six years. I help with maintenance issues to keep our RV Welcome Center and two garage tents serviced and repaired as needed. I also provide on call transportation from the Welcome Center to the bus and airport.
All volunteers are able to adjust their time commitment every month. It is a pleasure to assist as everyone is so happy, patient, skilled and eager to help each other communicate and arrange travel while also providing donated warm clothes and sack lunches as needed.
It's a great place for both retired and working people who want to experience the joy of a new immigrant as he first realizes he is free to make his way in the USA
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About four years ago, I was asked to help service and maintain the RV and tents that AIDNW uses as an office to greet immigrants released from the ICE Processing Center. We call it the Welcome Center. I service the waste and fresh water tanks, filling gas and propane tanks as needed. I also make minor repairs and coordinate professional repairs. I also help maintain the two large tents next to the RV which are used to accommodate COVID distancing needs while serving about 10-20 people per evening. These men and women are seeking asylum in the US, from countries all around the world. They are released in the late afternoon with nothing to eat, normally with only the clothes they wore when detained. Many speak little or no English and have no familiarity with Washington State. Volunteers at the Welcome Center provide them with phones to call friends and family in order to arrange for transportation to cities all over the US. They are given food and transportation to local housing, bus and/or the Seattle airport. Their sincere thanks and tears of joy are the pay volunteers receive each day.
I've volunteered with AIDNW for about 6 years now and have never regretted a minute of it. We are volunteers, but are "paid" many times over by the gratitude of those we help and the knowledge that we are making a difference in so many lives. It's also gratifying that we are able to counter to some extent the impressions that immigrants and asylum seekers get when they are locked up for months upon entry to the U.S. and treated like criminals.
I have volunteered at AIDNW, worked as an intern, and now work as an office assistant here. We are a small nonprofit providing vital services to immigrants in Tacoma, Washington. I truly believe our work is needed. Immigrants are sent here from different states to be processed. The majority of immigrants in detention have not broken any laws. They followed the rules and came here seeking asylum. Yet, they are detained and treated like criminals. After being processed at the ICE detention center in Tacoma, they are released onto the streets in the Tacoma tideflats. ICE releases immigrants without a travel plan. Our volunteers are there to help assist them get to their families. We also have volunteers who write letters and visit people in person at the detention center. Many people there experience a heavy toll on their mental health. We take pleasure in assisting immigrants who are detained and released in any way we can, although we are limited in what we are able to do because of the current policies.
I know people who volunteer at AIDNW and am thrilled to see the work they do. They are ever evolving as they recognize and meet the needs of the newly released detainees. I have been a supporter of AIDNW for 6 years and have seen them adjust to their ever the changing situation with flexibility and ingenuity.
I had the joy of providing airport transportation to recently released immigrants from the Detention Center in Tacoma. Other volunteers assisted them in connecting with families or sponsors for airfare to their destination. When several were ready, I drove them to the airport and escorted them to security (or sometimes,their gate).
Everyone was joyful to be out of detention and finally on their way to a new beginning. Many were surprised there was no charge for the ride I provided. I was able to convey with gestures that this was “heart work”
I am grateful to have been able to provide this small bit of support to immigrants from around the world. My heart is bigger because of it
Volunteers from this organization came to speak on this topic to my college class, and I am now pursuing volunteering with this organization. AIDNW provides essential services that bridge the unfilled needs that ICE ignores for the released detainees. According to their 2021 statement, "AIDNW is financed 100% through donations from private organizations and individuals.” Their incredible impact (they supported 1,196 immigrants from 96 different countries in 2021) is accomplished through hundreds of volunteers. Supporting this non-profit means helping to lift up detainees and support their dignity and wellbeing in fails that ICE fails to do.
AIDNW does such amazing work in their effort to extend a warm welcome to detained people and those newly released from the detention center. I am honored to be a volunteer with the organization.
Coming to the assistance of persons who are released from a federal immigrant detention center, has proved to be a boon, an absolute boon for hundreds and hundreds of people thanks to AIDNW - Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, Northwest. Imagine being released in the winter in the clothes you were wearing in Arizona in the summer. Imagine a welcoming group of people which soon finds clothing which suits you and keeps you warm for the days ahead. Imagine being released from the Detention Center and having no concept of where you are, and not knowing how to contact family and friends so you can travel to be with them. AIDNW HELPS! Scores of highly trained volunteers help. This is the American way. Caring for the stranger, asking nothing in return. This is AIDNW.
I volunteer at this non-profit and they are dedicated to providing recently released immigrants with resources to relocate and become independent members of the community.
Without AIDNW, thousands of immigrants would walk out of the NW Detention Center every year into a desolate industrial area of Tacoma with only a plastic bag containing their belongings and no way to communicate with their loved ones. Instead, AIDNW volunteers are there to: greet the immigrants warmly, offer telephones, chargers and wifi so they can reach their families, provide warm coats and hats in the winter, and food and drink always. Most importantly, AIDNW volunteers work with the immigrants and their families to arrange their flights to reunite with family or friends all over the US. For those whose families need time to gather travel funds, immigrants can stay for free at AIDNW's Hospitality House in Tacoma. AIDNW provides essential services that are simply provided by no one else.
This organization does vital work that no one else is doing. And the work is done by scores of active volunteers and only one full-time paid staff member. If AIDNW volunteers were not waiting outside the NW ICE Processing (detention) Center on the Tacoma tideflats every weekday of the year, immigrants released from the Center would be lost--there is no phone, store, or bus within a mile of the place. AIDNW volunteers welcome them with dignity, offer telephones for them to contact relatives and arrange travel, and then get them to the airport or airport bus. They offer coats in the winter and snacks and toiletries year round. AIDNW also provides $20 phone cards to any detainee who asks, every month.
Immigrants held at ICE's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA are lonely, cold, bored and frequently don't know where they are in the US. Many were brought to Tacoma at night on a plane from the Southern border. They may be held for weeks or for many months, with little to no opportunity to communicate with family or legal counsel. During that time, AID NW provides craft supplies, books, phone cards, and the opportunity to correspond with local volunteers by letter. When they are released, to either be deported or to join family elsewhere in the US while their asylum case is processed, they come out of the door with nothing but the clothes they came in with. AID NW is there to meet them at an RV set up in the parking lot as a welcome trailer. They staff it with kind volunteers who provide the released detainees with snacks, water, backpacks and coats, and transportation to the airport or housing for a few nights. Without AID NW's help, these immigrants would be released in the industrial Port of Tacoma area with nothing, and would be wandering hungry and lost, unable to speak English and get safely to family and friends.
Advocates for Immigrants in Detention Northwest (AIDNW), founded in 2005, is a nonprofit organization which supports immigrants detained inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC), a 1,575-bed immigration detention facility located in Tacoma, WA. AIDNW strives to improve detention conditions by ending the isolation immigrants feel when separated from family, and while they await their civil legal case hearings. When detained immigrants are released, AIDNW provides welcoming services focused on transitional support and connection to vital resources for resettlement. AIDNW offers a welcoming community that affirms the dignity of all immigrants and facilitates a pathway toward independent and productive lives. I have personally interviewed six recently released immigrants who have either received asylum status or are in that process. Their stories of why they emigrated to the US are difficult to hear. AIDNW greatly appreciates the generosity of our donors and the dedication of our 200+ volunteers to help these immigrants remake their lives and know security and happiness.
Impacting the world in a positive way is the bare minimum requirement for a good nonprofit. What makes one stand out? AIDNW stands out in that it changes the lives of underserved and vulnerable populations. It gives volunteers an opportunity to practice languages and computer technical skills. It opens world views and connects people to each other. These people coming from all over the world are introduced to an America that cares and is willing to help them. It is very professional, organized and efficient.
i heard about AIDNW from the TACOMA DOMINICAN SISTERS who were going to the detention center in the TACOMA TIDEFLATS to give snacks and water to families visiting those detained. A church and its pastor started giving water and snacks to people who were released from the center. These folks came out with a plastic sack containing their belongings, wearing the clothes they were picked up in. If they were detained in the summer and released in the fall or winter, they walked out in shorts and t-shirts or other clothes unsuitable for the season.
AIDNW began collecting coats/hats/gloves so that those released at least had something warm to wear as they made their way to families and friends in the US.
With the help of several local churches and temples AIDNW is now able to meet many needs of those released. All of this work is done with 1.5 paid staff and about 200 volunteers who generously give of their time and talents to offer hospitality to those fleeing home countries rife with violence or torn apart by changing climates that no longer sustain habitats. I believe
they are worthy of future and continued support.
I'm so grateful to be a part of the AIDNW team. Earlier I had experienced the joys of meeting people released from detention and assisting them with clothing, backpacks, travel arrangements, transportation, and more. And I make small monthly donations to support the many ways AIDNW brings pride to the Tacoma/Puget Sound region. People helping people in the fullest extent of the phrase. Were AIDNW not a presence outside the detention center, people would be released in the Tide Flats, often with no idea what next to do or how to do it.
Imagine the struggles that many individuals have seeking asylum in the USA from countries where war, gangs,corruption and cartels have ruined lives and families. AidNW supports these people when they are released from detention. A group of compassionate, often bilingual volunteers are at the Welcome Center outside of the Tacoma ICE detention center. With backpacks, extra clothing, snacks, phones and helpful volunteers, guests secure flights to reunite with family and friends. AidNW also provides a hospitality house for guests unable to get a flight out right away. It is a pleasure working with so many incredible individuals.
We have been donors to AIDNW for years. they are amazing and do so much for immigrants "detained" in Tacoma.
This is a wonderful organization giving people a hand up and letting immigrants know they are important to our world.
I admire several friends who volunteer there.
As a volunteer at AIDNW for many years, I have been a witness of hope and gratitude on the faces of men and women coming out of the ICE Detention Center. I hear their stories and feel so blessed to give a them an experience of kindness and generosity.
AID NW is one of the best nonprofit organizations I have encountered, and I have volunteered and donated to AID NW for the last four years. I worked in the Welcome RV outside the Tacoma Immigrant Detention Center to help immigrants immediately upon release. We provide snacks and needed clothing, help immigrants contact their families and make travel arrangements to their home base. This program has expanded with increased number of volunteers and of immigrants released. Currently I am a part of their immigrant book club and also am writing detained immigrants. Soon we will be able to visit.
The director of AID NW has established a working relationship with ICE in order to better serve
people. Our organization has established good relationships with other organizations helping detained immigrants.
AID NW has meetings of volunteers and educational events throughout the year. The Board and volunteers are some of the most progressive and compassionate people with whom I have worked. As volunteers we have learned much about the detention and immigration experiences from the immigrants we encounter.
I have nothing other than good things to say about AID NW>