As many of you know, LIRS recently held a Hope for the Holidays card writing campaign to give hope to families isolated in detention over the holidays. We asked supporters to write 1,700 cards, so that every migrant mother and child in family detention centers would receive a message of hope. We were amazed to receive 9,000 messages of hope. Thank you for the incredible compassion you demonstrated through participating in the holiday card writing campaign. This is a beautiful expression of welcome and friendship to the 1,700 individuals detained this Christmas season.
The next phase of this campaign is to give a gift to each child in the Karnes County family detention center and the Dilley detention center. To make this happen, we are partnering with Good News Lutheran Church in San Antonio, who will receive the gifts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will then facilitate delivery of the presents to the children. These little ones face medical issues, restricted movement, and depression as a result of detention. We only need 300 gifts to create happy memories for these children amidst the trauma of spending Christmas in a detention center.
Because of health and safety regulations, the federal government only allows letters to be sent to detained individuals: no packages. They are making an incredible exception to allow gifts into the facilities. We have worked closely with them to determine the safest way to send presents and have created a gift registry. We hope that every child at Karnes will be able to have a joyous Christmas this year.
Please follow the instructions below to order and ship a gift to a child in family detention. Please have your gift arrive at Good News Lutheran Church by Dec. 23 so it can be delivered to the facility by Christmas morning.
Gifts that arrive by any other process will not be accepted by the ICE facility.
- Visit our registry.
- Choose a gift.
- Purchase the gift.
- Enter in the mailing address corresponding to the registry.
- Return to the registry and mark your gift as purchased.
Thank you for participating in our holiday campaigns to bring hope and joy to the children in detention this season. Your gifts are powerful memories to the children and mothers who cannot celebrate Christmas this year.
Questions or concerns? Email us at visitation@lirs.org.
Please address gifts to:
Good News Lutheran Church
11020 Old Corpus Christi Hwy
San Antonio, TX 78223
Phone number: 210-213-6620 (Rosemarie)