People really hate the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy that is taking children from their parents at the border. The images and audio of confused, scared children crying out for their parents from cages have tugged at the heart strings of anyone who has a heart—and people are throwing money at any organization that might be able to stop it.
One Facebook fundraiser, in particular, has earned a stunning amount of money for a very good cause. So far, it’s raised over $3.7 million (and counting) for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), which is the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas. More than 50,000 people have contributed to the campaign.
The fundraiser was started on June 16 by Charlotte and Dave Willner, who had the humble goal of raising $1,500, which is the minimum amount to cover a bond necessary to get parents out of detention and reunited with their children while awaiting court proceedings. They also wanted to raise funds to ensure that every child in Texas’s immigration courts had legal representation, which they are not entitled to by law (let John Oliver highlight the ridiculousness of that).
The campaign is now raising about $4,000 a minute, according to a Facebook rep, who also reports that the RAICES office is overjoyed by the news. “We’ve been occasionally crying around the office all day when we check the fundraising totals,” a RAICES rep told Facebook. “This is such a profound rejection of the cruel policies of this administration.”
As of November 2017, Facebook waived all nonprofit fundraising fees, so 100% of what’s donated via the Facebook payments platform goes directly to the nonprofit.
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