Legal immigration is a mess. These startups are trying to help

Over 20 U.S. cities have passed municipal I.D. laws, which provide a form of identification to undocumented immigrants. “Municipal IDs are one of the most effective measures that cities can implement to protect and empower undocumented people.” Poughkeepsie, New York, is the latest city to pass such a law, and several others are in the process of doing so.

Connecting children with volunteer lawyers can greatly assist immigration cases. Nonprofits like the Safe Passage Project and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) work to provide children, often separated from their families, with legal defense. Without a lawyer, many children face immigration hearings alone, adding great trauma to a complicated process. A majority of unrepresented children are deported. Nonprofit legal groups across the US are working to create a safety net of legal counsel.

One way that any ordinary citizen can lend a hand to the plight of those caught in the American immigration system is by being a court observer: someone who sits in immigration court and takes notes by hand. Several organizations are working to develop a standardized way of evaluating judges' treatment of migrants to put it in a central database so that the data can be used to evaluate the human impact by the system as a whole. People who participate testify to the job alleviating despair over the situation as they can mitigate any unfair practices going unnoticed.

Five years after Germany sparked controversy with a welcoming message to the flood of refugees applying for asylum, more than half of those 1.7 million refugees have work and pay taxes, their youth show strong signs of belonging to their German communities, and more than 10,000 have mastered the language enough to enroll in German universities. Refuting anti-immigrant skeptics meant overcoming, or enduring, enormous social and economic challenges. Despite many bumps, the policy now appears to have avoided the nightmare scenarios foreseen by critics, such as inviting even more refugees.

With the help of legal counsel, immigrants facing deportation are more likely to win their cases and keep their families together. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project is one of several organizations in New York that provides lawyers free of charge to detained immigrants. The program is also a part of the broader Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) network, which includes 18 cities that have set up legal defense funds for immigrants.

For many refugees living in camps and on the move, mobile phones can be a life line to families and the outside world. Phones can help organize political activities, arrange medical supplies, and so much more. But although SIM cards are fairly cheap now, data can be expensive. To address this, a Facebook group called Phone Credit for Refugees and Displaced People, or PC4R, raises funds for refugees to top up their mobile phones to support free and dignified communication.

Grassroots organizers use mobile technology to spread information and resources to underserved immigrant communities. Groups like the Haitian Bridge Alliance and UndocuBlack mobilize legal and social resources for immigrants who belong to groups often characterized as “invisible” in the public discourse, because they represent such a small percentage of the migrant population. Mobile tech enables these nonprofits to publicize individual cases and quickly connect immigrants to appropriate social networks.

A human rights center is working with government agencies to identify the remains of people who died crossing the U.S. border. The partnership is helping the families of the dead find out what happened to their loved ones.

Three Part Series, "America Beyond Detention": For decades, immigrant advocates have argued that the federal government should increase the use of residential shelters - like Casa Marianella in Austin - as an alternative to detention. The shelters are generally less expensive, treat immigrants more humanely, and are better equipped to integrate people into their new communities.

In a creative twist, Syrian refugees are being given cash cards to spend as they wish rather than being given food boxes or in-kind donations. Agencies and refugees themselves say that it gives them dignity and choice, which are important in the survival process. It was also much more efficient and cheaper to distribute money than buying food. This podcast cites a study done to prove its efficacy, talks to a couple refugee families, and notes that results could vary from country to country.