These pen-pal programs for immigrants in detention are a way to show you care

If you’re an undocumented immigrant stuck in one of America’s more than 1,478 immigration detention centers, your only connection to the country might be the Legal Aid lawyer chosen to represent you in court. That’s if you’re lucky enough to have legal representation, which isn’t a guarantee.

Some of those detained have no one in America waiting for them — forget anyone willing to listen.

That’s why pen pal programs to immigrants stuck in detention — conducted jointly by HIAS and Freedom for Immigrants, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and multiple other nonprofits spanning the country — have taken off in recent months, advocates told Mashable. Letter writing provides these immigrants one of the most crucial social services around: an emotional connection to the outside, increasingly hostile, world. Read more…

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