Immigration advocates celebrate first year with online event

Americans Making Immigrants Safe (AMI) is celebrating its first anniversary with an online celebration and fundraising event on Sunday, Oct. 11, 7 p.m. A group of Cleveland Heights residents founded the nonprofit.

The event, “Cultural Connections,” will feature music by and recipes from 14 immigrants whom AMIS supported in its first year, from Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Jordan. 

AMIS’s annual report, to be distributed at the event, shows that the nonprofit raised $47,648.86 in its first year, and used 96.4% of that money to support immigrants; only 3.6% went to “overhead.”

AMIS, with assistance from Catholic Charities and Jobs with Justice, provided bail for three men from Burkina Faso, who are living at Forest Hill Church. They had been held in a private jail in Youngstown, though they had committed no crimes. 

AMIS raises funds “for legal services, education, basic living expenses and self-sufficiency”— contributing is another way residents of Cleveland Heights, a “welcoming city,” can show that it is indeed welcoming

Tickets for the virtual event are available on AMIS’s website, www.amisohio.org. The suggested ticket donation price is $30. Checks can be made to AMIS, P.O. Box 18558, Cleveland Heights, OH,  44118. Donations will contribute to the support and well-being of immigrants and their families as they seek asylum or other legal status in the United States.