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New in 2012: Two New Ways to Stay Connected
Rebuilding Hope
This monthly LIRS eNewsletter just received a new mandate and a new name for 2012! Starting in January, Words of Welcome becomes Rebuilding Hope. You will still meet heroes and stay connected to what's happening in the LIRS family. And Rebuilding Hope will have more stories, more voices, and more inspiration.
If you are receiving this newsletter already, you will automatically receive Rebuilding Hope at the same email address. You can also receive the expanded print version of Rebuilding Hope four times a year for FREE. Update your subscription.
Leadership Toolkit
Ministry leaders can also look forward to the LIRS Leadership TooIkit, a bimonthly resource for inspiring and strengthening migrant- and refugee-related ministries. Experts from across the country will share successes and how-tos for worship, human care, and advocacy.
The first issue is due out in March. Subscribe to be among the first to receive this valuable resource. And contact LIRS Director for Outreach Eli Hernandez to share your ideas and experiences.
...And You Visited Me
Advocacy Breakthrough Buoys Detention Visitation Ministry
 Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service's commitment to advocating for people in immigration detention led to an important breakthrough in 2011. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) heard the cry of LIRS and other NGOs on the vital importance of visits for detainees and announced a new policy on facility tours and visitation.
The new policy, effective October 2011, allows more consistent access to facilities across the country, reducing the frustration of navigating facility-specific procedures. Most important, it allows for visitation requests without identifying specific detainees. Previous policy limited visitor access to people they already knew, and often involved challenging red tape. Now detainees can also request visits via sign-up forms posted inside detention facilities. The new policy will allow significantly more detained individuals to receive the support and encouragement visits can provide.
The months, sometimes years, vulnerable migrants spend in immigration detention can be extremely lonely and full of fear. As they await an asylum ruling or other resolution, visits from compassionate volunteers can bring powerful healing and hope. Visitors can also bring practical help that leads to more positive outcomes: Assistance with follow-through on action steps can be crucial to meeting deadlines related to immigration cases, and links to community assistance and hospitality can facilitate release so migrants can pursue their cases outside of detention.
"Spending one Saturday a month listening to detainees' stories is a quiet act of heroism," says LIRS Director for Access to Justice Leslie Vélez. "And it often leads to bold advocacy." And that bold advocacy, applied to our nation's problematic immigration policies, is vital to ending mandatory detention.
Be bold with LIRS. Stay up to date on issues and action opportunities at LIRS.org/dignity.
Resource
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has established a policy for requesting facility tours and visitation. This new policy will provide more consistent access to facilities across the country. Most important, it allows for requests without identifying detainees. This means that any person in an immigration detention facility could have the opportunity to receive a visit -- not just the people the requestors know about in advance. LIRS staff assembled the documents and provided instructions and examples in a toolkit to help you on your way: Access Toolkit
Action
As the new year begins, take moment to pray about how God is calling you to welcome in 2012. Start a visitation ministry? Help a refugee improve their English? Seek to welcome as Christ encourages us to do in Matthew 25:35. The rewards are out of the world!
Inspiration
Show me your ways, LORD,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
--Psalm 25:4-5 (NIV)
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