Help Us Save Peoples Lives at Immigration Detention Centers Across the United States

Over the last year, the Border Mosque has worked to unite families with the Border Church at Friendship Park at the US / Mexico Border. In 2020 our plan was to begin to focus on working to get our Sisters and Brothers free from immigrant detention centers around the US, working with Believers Bailout. Of course with the COVID 19 virus, this situation has become even more dire, as there have been several deaths at these facilities. According to our research inside immigrant detention centers, there are hundreds of Muslim asylum seekers who are being held in some cases for years.

In the above video, we visited the Otay Mesa facility with the Muslim asylum lawyer, Nicholas Pierce who told us the story of an abolitionist from Mauritania who fled his country after working to free people from slavery. Abu Diop leads the five daily prayers at Otay Mesa for the brothers on his detention block and has told us stories of the other Muslims locked up there. 

​Over the last year, we have found an emerging Muslim ban community in Tijuana and we have learned about people like a sister from Yemen who has been moved from detention center to detention center over the last year, despite having family sponsors in the US. 

Working with groups like Al Otro Lado in Tijuana / San Diego who take hundreds of asylum cases per year, we have heard stories of the arbitrary detention of Muslims at our various ports of entry. Like this brother we just heard about last week from Pakistan who was detained for 6 months when he tried to enter the US to see his family. 

National Muslim organizations are not generally working in detention centers in the United States and this is a zakat eligible way to help free our sisters and brothers from incarceration. 

Muslim detainees at immigration facilities are especially vulnerable because they are often denied their basic religious rights. As we work on these cases our plan is to continue to research Muslim immigration detention as we report back the cases we are working on.