Card campaign can cross detention

Families who are separated from their loved ones in immigration detention could use some care this season. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) has started a holiday card campaign called Hope for the Holidays, and members of the synod’s Global Missions Committee who nurture our Companion Synod ties with El Salvador invite synod congregations to participate.

LIRS wants our help to complete cards for 1,700 women and children held in family immigration detention facilities by Christmas of 2014.

“We encourage you to invite friends, neighbors and congregations to bring spare holiday cards when they gather to write messages of holiday cheer,” says Sarah Harrs, coordinator of the program for LIRS. Samples messages in Spanish are available in materials to support the Hope for the Holidays drive. “We will send the holiday cards to the four family detention centers in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas so that each individual has a card on December 25th.”

Mail cards by December 9 grouped into one or two large envelopes marked “Access to Justice” to the LIRS office.

A (1) flyer introducing the effort, including a description of family immigration detention, is available on the “Extras” page along with a (2) longer descriptive piece with event-hosting ideas and common greetings in Spanish. Visit lirs.org/hopefortheholidays for more.

“Thank you for your compassion, and we look forward to working with you to make this holiday season a little brighter for hundreds of families,” said Harrs.