April Newsletter
March Guests
Pictured above is a guest from Mexico, who was welcomed to Casa de Paz last week. He was one of 19 people (from 10 countries!) who came to Casa de Paz and enjoyed a delicious and warm pizza in March. While not many people are being released now, we continue to advocate and assist those individuals who remain detained. Our work continues to shift and we keep finding the most impactful ways to make a difference for those who've suffered at the hands of privatized detention centers. Check out how you can continue supported them below!
Visit and share our recently-added Detention How To Guides for families and friends of recently detained immigrants. Our guides (you can find the direct link here), are in both English and Spanish; we are working hard to get these translated to other languages as well.
Helping our detained friends with commissary
According to TRAC Immigration, 47,892 individuals were detained across the United States on March 23, 2025. This is the highest number recorded by TRAC Immigration,since 2019. With less releases from the Aurora Immigration Detention Center and more ICE sightings and arrests in our very own community, this is the time to be more alert and united than ever.
Some of you reached out and asked if items could be directly donated to the detention center; due to its for-profit status, the detention will not accept these items for the detained immigrants, as these have to purchased. Consider donating to our commissary assistance fund, so that together, we can gift someone in detention a few dollars to make phone calls or purchase food items, such as a cup of noodle.
OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT
Donation Drive: Per TSA as of now, our guests are not able to travel by air anymore and are having to take a bus back to their families. What used to be a 3 hour flight, has now turned into a 24+ hour trip. Consider hosting a Donation Drive so our guests can all leave with money for meals and a tracphone during their long-hours trip back with their families.
Pizza Donation: Email us or text us to coordinate a pizza delivery donation.
Show your support: Buy yourself (or that one incredible friend!) a Casa shirt here!
Love coffee? Casa de Paz will earn $3 for every coffee bag sold at Coffee for the Cause, when you select us at checkout!
THANK YOU!
Thank you Malia from Hugs Not Required for dropping off clothes, shoes, backpacks, and toiletries for our guests. Also, Brian from Bethlehem Lutheran Church dropped off a few Welcome Cards to greet our guests upon their arrival to Casa de Paz - thank you! Lastly, thanks to Rachel for all of her generous donations, including new, vibrant, colorful socks for our guests! P.S. Check out her awesome poster in the picture below!
EVENTS COMING UP
April 28 4pm - 530pm: Congregational Legal Talk at Montview Presbyterian Church. Learn about the legal frameworks for helping vulnerable immigrants. Registration is required.
A message from our Executive Director
"Libertad y Justicia Para Todos"
Over the last three months, we have seen endless actions taken against our immigrant community. Our immigrant community is not the only one suffering. The last three months have shown us how connected everything is, and how connected we all are. From housing rights, workers, lgbtq+ , immigrant rights - they are all human rights.
Casa de Paz staff and volunteers meet people every day, through letters, through visits, and during their release. This community understands first hand the suffering that people are put through in immigrant detention centers, not only here in Aurora, but across the United States. This community also knows that these injustices are not new. The horrible conditions in which we treat human beings is not new. It's highlighted, it's more violent and more graphic. It is also becoming normalized. Let's not let it be normal. Now, we are seeing this administration detain people in larger numbers, target community members, and target people for their beliefs and their freedom of speech. As an immigrant in my community, I stand with those who speak out against the injustices of systems that were not built for us.
We are working on making sure that we support folks as they suffer at the hands of privatized detention, but we are also working on keeping people out of detention. Most recently, our Welcome Team is providing KYR's cards to people as they leave out of state so that people can exercise their rights and stay out of detention. We are collecting stories of individuals so that we can continue to fight harmful narratives about our community, and looking at ways to amplify our efforts and current programs. Our team is also working towards a plan where we can amplify the voices of those suffering at the hands of detention and increasing our impact. We hope that people realize that immigrant detention centers everywhere in the United States need to be abolished and that simply ending detention here in Colorado will only place an imaginary fix on detention in our state, but not for our immigrant community collectively.
Casa de Paz stands with ALL of the people who continue to suffer at the hands of privatized immigrant detention centers.
Thank you for your continued support. We could not do this without you.
Here to stay,
Andrea Loya
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