Giving Tuesday is about seizing the opportunity to make a difference. Your support helps us build a stronger, more inclusive Virginia through key initiatives like our brand new Immigrants' Rights Project.

We believe the people closest to the issues have the best solutions. Today we are asking you to support the ACLU of Virginia, including our new immigrants' rights work, and to also consider a gift to other organizations that have long been doing this work.

Support from people like you is what makes our work possible.

Donate to the ACLU-VA

Organizations Supporting Immigrant Communities in Virginia

Dos Santos (Eastern Shore)

Dos Santos Food Pantry/Thrift Store is a 501c3 non-profit that assists low-income resident families and seasonal agricultural workers on the Eastern Shore to meet their basic need for food. Throughout the year, Dos Santos distributes food supplies to hard-working families (mostly Hispanic) each month, keeping an average of nearly 1500 family members from suffering food shortages.

Support their work here.

Hamkae Center (Northern Virginia)

Hamkae Center organizes Asian Americans to achieve social, economic, and racial justice in Virginia. Through community organizing, public policy advocacy, civic engagement, youth leadership development, service provision, and community education, Hamkae Center works to build a future in which low- and middle-income, immigrant, people of color, and marginalized communities can fully participate in U.S. society and work together as makers of lasting change.

Support their work here.

Sin Barreras (Charlottesville)

Sin Barreras' mission is to empower immigrants and their families in Central Virginia, focusing on the Hispanic population, by educating, advocating, and supporting their needs.

Support their work here.

Tenants and Workers United (Northern Virginia)

Tenants and Workers United (TWU) is a democratically-controlled grassroots organization committed to building community power to win social and economic justice across Northern Virginia. Centering leadership development and civic education, TWU organizes people of color from low-income backgrounds to secure sustainable changes in Alexandria City, Fairfax County, and Prince William County, with a focus on deeply affordable and dignified housing.

Support their work here.

Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (statewide)

The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (VACIR) is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition of organizations that exists to win dignity, power and quality of life for all immigrant and refugee communities.

Support their work here.

The Women's Initiative (Charlottesville)

The Women’s Initiative provides vital mental health services regardless of ability to pay. Their counseling, social support and education programs serve more than 2,500 women annually. They seek to increase access to care and create a safe, welcoming place for women of all backgrounds.

Support their work here.

When Michelle Hensley heard that her husband James wouldn’t be coming home from prison as expected, she was at the doctor’s office. Her blood pressure skyrocketed so high, so quickly that her doctor wouldn’t let her leave. Michelle had to lie down; she tried not to think of James.

“I felt like someone had died! My heart broke,” said Michelle. “I had made plans for his arrival.”

The Hensleys expected James to be released in July of 2022 thanks to something called the earned sentence credit program. It recognized that people work hard while in prison and created a pathway for them to earn an earlier release when they prove that they don’t pose a risk to the public.

But after the General Assembly approved expanded earned sentence credits for people like James, the Youngkin administration undermined legislators by adding a provision to the Virginia state budget that the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) interpreted to mean many people would no longer be eligible for the program.

According to VADOC, that included James.

“In a word, I felt destroyed,” said James.

By the time James and Michelle learned James’ earned sentence credits would not be honored, Michelle had already begun preparing for James’ arrival – and so had the state. James had been cleared by the VADOC’s medical department, received paperwork from the court to have his fines cleared, received paperwork from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and signed his paperwork to be released. Probation officers had visited Michelle’s home to make sure it was stable. James had a job lined up and was ready to begin working upon his release.

And then the VADOC told him he was no longer going home.

“I know that politics... are a part of our society. [H]owever, politics … should not be the ultimate deciding factor when so many lives are affected and stand to be upended in the miscalculation of a decision,” said James.