Authors raise $1.4 million for migrant kids held alone in Arizona detention center

Kaila White | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Caravan: Migrants camping outside U.S. port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico About 200 Central American migrants from the caravan are camped outside the U.S. port of entry after being turned away Sunday by U.S. officials

Two immigration issues captured the nation's attention over the Memorial Day weekend.

First, news that the United States will start prosecuting all parents caught entering the U.S illegally with their children and separating them from their kids ignited debate.

That renewed outrage over nearly 1,500 migrant children who the government took custody of at the southwest border, placed in temporary homes and then lost track of.

By Tuesday morning, a cohort of some of the country's best known, Oprah-endorsed self-help authors announced they would do something about it and raise money to help these kids, beginning with a focus on Arizona.

Brené Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed called on their fans to support Glennon Doyle and her non-profit organization, Together Rising. The organization is raising money to hire two lawyers and two advocates to help 60 children ages 1 to 10 at an immigrant detention center in Arizona.

"There is no such thing as other people’s children," Doyle wrote on her website Tuesday. "We will fight for these kids like we’d fight if they were our kids. Because they are. We will fight for these mothers like we’d fight if they were our sisters. Because they are."

They raised $1.4 million in one day. The money will go to two nonprofits:

The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, also known as the Florence Project, which provides legal assistance to about 3,000 detained immigrants annually at four detention facilities, including the Eloy Detention Center and the Florence Service Processing Center, which are among the largest in the country.

And to fund an attorney and a social worker at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, which helps unaccompanied immigrant children across the country.

"The Young Center is so incredibly grateful to Glennon Doyle and Together Rising for raising funds to expand our advocacy in parent-child separation cases," the center said in a statement Thursday to The Arizona Republic.

"Right now there is a waiting list of separated children who need our services. Through the generosity of Glennon Doyle and Together Rising we’ll be able to champion the best interests of the ever-increasing population of separated children and move mountains to reunite them with their parents," the statement said.

The Florence Project also thanked Together Rising in a statement, adding "We stand against the traumatic policy of separating families."

Excess funds and any additional donations will be used to hire more lawyers and child advocates at detention centers nationwide, Doyle said.

"If you are tempted to feel that no one cares: Let me assure you," Doyle posted Tuesday evening. "Tens of thousands of people from all over the world showed up in the past 9 hours and poured out their hard-earned money to help babies they’ve never met reunite with mothers they’ll never know."

On Wednesday, she thanked donors and asked people to confront lawmakers about immigration issues.

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