The nonprofit organization called RAICES announced Tuesday a $3 million donation to help pay for the transportation and lodging of recently released and reunified immigrant families, costs that can reach into the thousands of dollars per family.

The fund, called Flights for Families, is operated by the Families Belong Together campaign — a coalition of dozens of advocacy groups across the country — and FWD.us, which has been aiding family reunification in New Mexico and Arizona.

The groups have established a help desk to take calls from lawyers and families on behalf of those recently reunified to begin the booking process.

The government has so far declined to pay for migrant expenses post-reunification. In San Antonio, Catholic Charities has been covering the costs if immigrants or their sponsors can’t afford the flights.

Alida Garcia, coalitions and policy director for FWD.us, said this is an example of Americans and nonprofits coming together during a “moment when the government is failing us.”

The online fundraiser set a goal to raise $25,000 when it first launched two weeks ago. It has since raised the goal to $200,000, and had raised $179,612 as of Tuesday afternoon.

“This is a really incredible example of what we can do when we come together. And we’ve seen that over and over again since this horrific crisis began,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, political director of National Domestic Workers Alliance who is co-leading the Families Belong Together campaign.

Flights for families has staff — including DACA recipients — at various locations ensuring the families get through security at the airport, managing delays and flight transfers, and making sure the families have a point of contact on their final destination, Garcia said.

In many instances, detained parents were transferred to a different detention facility, and children were flown to that facility, even though it is not necessarily near their final destination.

The $3 million donation is separate from $20 million that RAICES, the San Antonio-based agency that provides legal aid to immigrants throughout Texas, raised online, which was specifically dedicated to posting bail for separated parents. The nonprofit has already started doling that money out to detained parents.

Some detained parents have been bonded out and need money for flights to visit their children in federal shelters, said Jennifer Falcon, the RAICES communications director.

“We’re dealing with different groups of parents and children in different circumstances,” Falcon said.

“This is just step one in servicing these families,” Garcia said.

“Many of these families are being released with very urgent check-ins around their cases. These families are the ones the government has decided to release,” Garcia added, alluding to the 463 parents who were deported, according to government figures.

In those cases, RAICES said it is working to locate the parents. But until then, she said, the children are either placed with adult sponsors or placed in a foster care system.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFF