How we helped an asylum seeker in our community

We’ve been quietly helping atheist immigrants in our community survive the Trump administration.

This month we helped raise $5,000 in emergency legal funds for an asylum seeker in our community who faced a surprise immigration hearing.

This member—let’s call her Kate—applied for asylum in the U.S. as a student after criticizing her country’s state religion, making herself a target for religious vigilantes and prosecution under de-facto blasphemy laws.

Nine years after applying, Kate finally got an initial hearing date… right as Trump ordered a halt to all asylum applications and pressured judges to deny most cases.   

Naturally, Kate was terrified. ICE agents have been stepping up surprise abductions at courthouses. So she called Atheists United. 

Kate has no family to which she could turn. We had become that family. Kate needed someone on her side who could react to any outcome, whether in court or ICE custody.

Thankfully, our staff and board consist of long-time activists with deep professional networks and we immediately found a donor to cover emergency legal fees.

We also went a step further. We assisted her case by putting out a call to action to trusted national and local atheist partners. Because her case is about religious persecution, Kate had to both prove she’s in danger of violence if forced to return to her home country and that she’s been a “practicing atheist” the past 9 years. 

We collected half a dozen letters of support, submitted our own letter, and even submitted photo evidence of her participation in our community.

(Below is a photo of her leading our group at the Santa Clarita 4th of July parade)

Why Atheists United was uniquely poised to help Kate.

Since Trump was re-elected, we made the strategic choice to restructure into a more nimble and grassroots organization. Because of our new flexibility, when Kate came to us in crisis we were able to go outside the scope of our usual work to help… and be ready with a media strategy if the worst happened.

Our staff have also been steadily building a new and improved support network of local and national partners (on top of our already solid network built over the last four decades).

We’re now connected to a cadre of new lawyers, lobbyists, faith leaders, community organizers, scholars, and politicians who are ready to stand arm-in-arm with us as we fight back against religious nationalist attacks on our community.

This is the kind of unheralded work Atheists United does that we can’t always quantify for a donor email or grant application.

When you support Atheists United, you’re making an investment in a network of radically compassionate local atheist organizers.

Atheists United has immigrants at every level of our community, including leaders of our board of directors and chapters.

Our multicultural community consists of immigrants from places like Iran, Mexico, Bangladesh, Turkey, France, Germany, UK, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Guatemala, Argentina, New Zealand, Vietnam, Switzerland, Kenya, Uruguay, Ecuador, Philippines, and more. For them, Atheists United is part of what makes America home.

We’re $2,000 behind our fundraising goal this month. If we can catch up and continue to hit our goals this year, we can launch a permanent Atheist Community Care Fund for the next unexpected call for assistance, whatever that may be. 

Kate gets to move on to the next phase of her case because we were there for her. Help us support the next Kate that comes to us asking for help.

Thank you for your belief in us.