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Notes from the Team...
Hi Reader,
May acknowledges three important observances: Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month (AANHPI) and Jewish Heritage Month. We invite you to speak openly about mental health, honor the histories and resiliencies of AANHPI and Jewish communities and ask ourselves what community care looks like. How do we heal? How do we ask for support? And how do we provide support?
For AANHPI migrants in immigration detention, mental health is shaped by isolation, uncertainty, and fear. Since taking office in 2025, the Trump administration has grown the number of people in ICE detention by over 75%, with nearly 70,000 immigrants being held daily. ICE arrests within the Asian community have quadrupled. NPR reports a record of mass incarceration that the United States has not seen since the detention of Japanese-Americans and nationals during World War II. Detained LGBTQ+ individuals navigate layers of trauma and face increased levels of harassment, violence, and erasure.
Conditions like this not only fail to support mental health, they actively contribute to increased distress and perpetuate this ongoing crisis. The parallels between histories of mass incarcerations of Japanese-Americans and nationals, Jews, LGBTQ+ individuals, and political dissidents during WWII and to what we are witnessing today must not be ignored. This moment demands visibility and action.
MSC is a multiethnic collective, affected by and rooted in these histories, fighting against modern-day mass incarceration. As an organization, we believe mental health care must be protected before, during and well beyond detention. In addition to providing books through our signature library program, our pilot LGBTQ+ Emotional Support Program, and recent commissary fund drive, we have been actively collaborating with community partners to provide support packets and resources for LGBTQ+ migrants who were detained by ICE and are relocating to Chicago.
This month, and every month, we are calling attention to the responsibility we all share in building paths to care, dignity, advocacy and support for our detained migrant communities and the intersectionalities within these communities. Together, we move toward a freer, safer and more just world. And we cannot do it without you.
With love and solidarity,
The Migrant Support Collective
Thank you Supporters!
Thank you to everyone who helped raise funds for our Commissary Fund Drive. Our goal was to raise $100 for 30 detained migrants.
Together we raised $1,500 and we are able to send $100 to 15 detained migrants! Your support is making a real impact and there is still time to keep the momentum going.
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What's New?
Programs
- We received our first requests for our pilot LGBTQ+ Emotional Support Program and sent out resource packets. A special thanks to the help from Outpatient/UChicago student volunteers who helped stuff envelopes!
- In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day and in partnership with our Library Program, we were able to fulfill a lot of book wishlists! Thank you to the Hull Family Foundation for the match grant of $1,000 for purchases made from April 25-May 2. Our week-long campaign may be over, but there is still an opportunity to fulfill book wishes for detained migrants in our community.
Community Partnerships:
Team Growth:
- MSC is excited to have three staff members, all who have been supporting the organization on a volunteer basis behind the scenes! Read their bios below.
News
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The MSC Staff
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Beck (she/they)
Community Engagement Coordinator
While working as the Pro Bono Coordinator of the LGBTQ Immigrant Rights Initiative at the National Immigrant Justice Center, Beck and their colleagues started a Gofundme to buy books and journals for their detained clients. When they started getting messages from people all over the country, they worked together to build that effort into Migrant Support Collective. Our Library Program is the result of that initial project. Now, as MSC’s Development Coordinator, Beck enjoys helping people find the best way they can support the Collective, whether that’s by donating, volunteering, or offering subject expertise. Outside of MSC, Beck serves on the board of Tzedek Chicago, reads too many historical fiction books, and spends time in the park with her wife and their puppy.
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Michelle (she/they)
Advocacy and Hotline Lead
Michelle’s work in immigrant justice began in 2016 through community organizing and legal advocacy, supporting immigrant communities navigating complex legal systems. At the National Immigrant Justice Center, they worked on asylum, trafficking, and gender-based violence cases while coordinating the LGBTQ Immigrant Rights Initiative. Her work later expanded into farmworker advocacy, youth programming, violence prevention, and pretrial justice, always grounded in community-centered support and systems change. Through these roles, Michelle built extensive experience in program implementation, monitoring, and direct service coordination. Most recently, they worked at the Chicago Department of Public Health, supporting victim services and mental health initiatives across Chicago. Michelle currently serves on the board of the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund, where she supports bond posting efforts for people in immigration detention across the Midwest. Across all of her work, Michelle remains committed to building stronger systems of care, justice, and community support.
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Mimi (she/her)
Creative Programs Coordinator
Mimi first connected with MSC in 2022 as a volunteer designer for Books for Migrants while working at Legal Aid Chicago. With over a decade of nonprofit experience spanning direct service, community work, and creative programming, she leads MSC's Art as Advocacy program and collaborates with volunteers on design, marketing, communications, social media, and event planning. Outside of MSC, she runs an independent design studio serving nonprofits and purpose-driven small businesses, and volunteers with Art From the Inside, a Minnesota-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting incarcerated artists.
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Book of the Month
La Casa En El Mar Más Azul
By Tj Klune
Many detention centers require books to be shipped from Amazon or other major retailers, but if you find a detention center with more flexible rules, consider searching for your favorite local bookstore on Bookshop, or ordering from one of these places:
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*This book was requested from a detained individual via our Library Program.
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Coming up...
May
- May 7 and 17 we will host an orientation for those interested in helping with our Pride in Migration Fundraiser in June.
June
- Pride in Migration Fundraiser. We will be seeking volunteers to help with fundraising campaigns for the month of pride. A majority of the work will entail text banks.
October
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Join us. Donate. Share. Take Action.
Every bit of support matters. We invite you to be part of creating a world where migrants live free from the injustices of detention.
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Support the Collective
We cannot do this work without the support of advocates, ally's, community partners and volunteers like you. Here are ways you can support our mission:
Only .1% of detained migrants are LGBTQ+ across the U.S., yet they account for 14% of MSC's participants (Feb. '26) |
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With Gratitude
Thank you again for being a part of Migrant Support Collective. Whether through your time, dollars, energy, advocacy, or simply offering words of encouragement along the way, every contribution matters and we couldn't do it without you.
In Solidarity,
The Migrant Support Collective Team
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