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Challenging Injustice, Advancing Human Rights

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee advances human rights through grassroots collaborations.

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Foundation for the Austin Sanctuary Network

A coalition working in Austin, Texas to fight for the rights of immigrants and asylum-seekers in sanctuary.
Foundation for the Austin Sanctuary Network logo

LOCATION: Austin, Texas

The Foundation for the Austin Sanctuary Network (ASN) was formed in 2015 to provide sanctuary and support for immigrants and asylum-seekers who escaped dangerous and deadly conditions in their countries of origin and who did not want to be deported back into those same conditions.

ASN works in solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are being held unjustly and denied asylum status. ASN demands an immediate stop to raids and for-profit detention, an end to all deportations, and updated immigration laws that are fair and humane. They use two tactics: 

  1. They seek to create a community to provide physical sanctuary for immigrants who have exhausted their legal options and face deportation.
  2. They provide accompaniment for Austin-area immigrants in deportation proceedings as they attend required ICE check-ins, ankle monitor check-ins, and court hearings in San Antonio to witness firsthand what these systems do to our neighbors.

ASN’s donations toward living expenses have helped the congregations that have been supporting immigrants and asylum-seekers. It’s given ASN’s sanctuary leaders more independence to spend money according to their own personal needs. They also did lots of organizing and base building to move members of Congress to contact ICE and DHS directly to demand approval of Stays of Removal.

UUSC supports the Austin Sanctuary Network’s advocacy for immigrant justice, and it will provide funding that will help pay salaries for its organizers and the cost of ongoing simultaneous interpretation. 

Image Credit: Foundation for the Austin Sanctuary Network

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