In Colorado, community members create art a vigil to honor immigrant mothers. The event was held outside the for-profit GEO detention center in Aurora. Photo: Oscar Juarez
Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the women who raised us—to honor their love, their sacrifice, their strength. But today, thousands of immigrant mothers are separated from their children and loved ones by detention. Across the U.S., mothers are locked up in immigration detention centers. Many more are left to care for their families alone after a loved one is detained or deported.
No one should be torn away from their loved ones. Families should never be separated by walls or borders. That’s why, with your support, AFSC is working alongside communities across the country to end detention for good.
This week, dozens of community members in San Diego, California, and Denver, Colorado, showed up for mothers in detention. We wanted everyone behind those walls to know that people outside stand in solidarity with them, that they are not forgotten.
In Colorado, community members gathered for a vigil outside the GEO Detention Center in Aurora. We held handmade signs and candles and delivered our messages through a megaphone so everyone inside could hear.
Faith leaders and community members show solidarity with immigrant mothers outside of the for-profit Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. Adriana Jasso/AFSC
In San Diego, many community members came together to make Mother’s Day cards for people in detention. On Friday, we brought the cards and yellow flowers to Otay Mesa Detention Center, where we hoped they would be delivered to people inside.
These acts of solidarity are one part of a broader effort to support families facing detention. They also highlight the cruelty of our immigration system.
“Writing a Mother's Day card to someone who is currently being detained exemplifies the idea that everyday people are thinking about those who have been deprived of their freedom,” says Adriana Jasso, coordinator for AFSC’s U.S-Mexico Border Program. “We need to communicate to the public that immigration law and policies—as harmful as they are—don’t just impact mothers being held, but also their children and extended community. We have a responsibility to call out the inhumanity of a system that continues to take away people’s freedom and potentially their future.”
Since the start of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has vastly expanded detention and deportation. ICE has detained the parents of at least 50 U.S. citizen children per day, according to research by ProPublica. It has also deported four times as many mothers of U.S. citizen children per day as the previous administration did.
The people behind these numbers are mothers, children, and whole communities.
How communities are responding
Every week, AFSC staff and volunteers provide mutual aid, vital information, and other support to people outside of the Miramar ICE facility in Florida. Photo: Adam Barkan
From California to New Jersey, AFSC provides direct support to families impacted by detention and deportation. That includes legal representation, social work, accompaniment, and other support.
In Florida, AFSC is part of the Miramar Circle of Protection. Since 2017, the group has offered mutual aid, information, and other resources to immigrants navigating the immigration system.
Every Wednesday, AFSC staff and volunteers set up across the street from the local ICE facility in Miramar. We offer water, coffee, homemade pasteles, clothing, Know Your Rights information, and legal referrals. When someone comes for an ICE appointment and gets detained, our team documents what they can and helps families locate their loved ones.
AFSC Campaigns Coordinator Maria Bilbao helped found the Circle of Protection. In recent months, she says the group has assisted mothers facing eviction, deportation, and family separation.
Gladis is a mother of two. Her youngest was just two weeks old when ICE detained her husband while he was walking to the neighborhood store. Without her husband’s income, Gladis couldn’t pay the rent or afford groceries or diapers. The Circle of Protection mobilized, helping raise funds from the community to cover her rent for three months and other expenses until she figured out her next steps.
Doris and her husband were both detained and facing deportation. Maria connected them with legal help to get their affairs in order. The parents made the difficult decision to return to Honduras with their young children. Maria helped Doris get passports for their children so they could make the journey together.
Ana* came to the Circle of Protection after her husband was deported during an ICE check-in at the facility. She didn’t know how she was going to support their family. The group provided her with some financial assistance. They brought toys for her kids. And they connected with a local immigrant services organization that could offer long-term support.
“We are not charity,” Maria says. “We are showing up. We are bearing witness. We are documenting everything we’re seeing. We are there every day to stand with immigrants facing detention and injustice.”
This is what community looks like—people choosing to show up for one another. None of this work happens without people who believe families belong together and that all people deserve to live in dignity.
Because of supporters like you, we can walk alongside mothers like Gladis, Dori, and Ana—offering care, resources, and solidarity in the hardest moments.
This Mother's Day, we stand with every mother harmed by detention and deportation. We stand with every family forced to navigate this inhumane system. And we will keep standing until every mother can spend this day where she belongs—with her children, her family, and her community.
