It felt like a brightly colored life preserver amid an ocean of bad news. On November 12, a federal judge in Chicago ruled that 615 people who had been arrested by federal immigration agents there, likely illegally, were eligible for release on $1,500 bonds. I found out about the ruling during my lunch break, not 20 minutes after the ruling, when a stranger sent an Instagram message to the bond fund I volunteer for, asking if we were fundraising to help pay for these bonds.
I’ve been working with the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund for a few years. We’re a small group of volunteers who do everything from creating endless Canva graphics to the actual posting of bonds. We began in 2020 and have gotten off the ground slowly. In 2024 we paid 19 bonds, helping midwesterners leave immigration detention and fight their cases from their homes and communities.
The year that followed had already been a time of unprecedented growth. From inauguration day forward, people had been raising funds for us in creative and brilliant ways all year, each sticker sale or merch drop or benefit concert or supper club seemingly spawning another three, the money rolling in a steady stream from our neighbors’ pockets into our account and then spun out nearly as fast into paying bonds. We had more than tripled the number of people we had bonded out and had been able to pay higher and higher bonds. And now this.
