FFI staff & volunteers with friends from J.M. Kaplan Fund.

While finance to many might conjure a boring system of transactions or a dangerous game of capitalist exploitation to financial activists, investment vehicles are fair game for creative and exciting innovations toward liberation. One area of continuous advocacy is the abolition of bail, which forces countless individuals to remain in jail simply because they cannot afford their own release. Often, the over-incarcerated and their loved ones have to turn to bail bonds companies that exploit the vulnerability of their financial situations, charge exorbitant interest, and require collateral in exchange for the funds needed for bail. According to the Prison Policy Institute, over 465,000 people are held in local jails every day without being convicted of a crime, simply because they cant afford their bail.

Bail isnt just part of the criminal justice system you might be surprised to hear that it exists in the immigrant detention system, too. Except that in this context, its referred to as immigration bond. Thats right, take a second to wrap your head around this: despite committing what should be a civil, not criminal, infraction, immigrants who cross the border seeking a better life are asked to pay bond. Tens of thousands of children and adults are in this position on any given day, stuck in immigrant prisons and jails for years. With the costs of bonds ranging from $1,500 to $250,000, immigrants and their families often cannot afford to pay bond.

Numerous bail funds like the Bail Project, New Yorks Free Them All for Public Health, and LAs Peoples City Council Freedom Fund have historically helped address the criminalization of poverty in the U.S. and advocates have been working to end cash bail entirely. In the wake of mass arrests of protestors around the country in support of the Movement for Black Lives, many bail funds have experienced an unprecedented surge in financial support. But there has been less attention on immigrant detention. Thats where Freedom for Immigrants has stepped in. Since 2010, they have supported both bond funding and critical post-release wraparound services for immigrants nationwide. Their National Hotline, the nations largest for immigrants in detention, receives between 600 and 14,500 calls per month. They are part of a growing network of bail and immigration bond funds across the country, hosted by Community Justice Exchange.

Freedom for Immigrants is a national nonprofit that has grown from monitoring the human rights abuses faced by immigrants detained by ICE through their national hotline and network of volunteer detention visitors to also include actionable approaches for dignity, not detention. These approaches call for divestment from for-profit incarceration and investment in community-based organizations and tools like bond funds to welcome immigrants into the social fabric of the United States. The organization is now partnering with Mission Driven Finance an impact investment firm and certified B Corporation dedicated to using finance as a tool for change, expanding access to capital, and closing opportunity gaps to launch the Freedom100 Fund. This new pilot fund aims to release 100 individuals from immigration prison, support them with their cases and prove that its time for the bail and bond system to go.

I talked with Lauren Grattan, Co-Founder and Chief Community Officer of Mission Driven Finance, and Christina Mansfield, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Freedom for Immigrants, to learn more about this bond fund, how it works, and why its an important development for investors and activists committed to immigrant freedom.

For those who may be new to this world, whats the current problem with immigration bonds and the criminalization of poverty in the United States that you're trying to address? How has COVID-19 added another layer to this?

Gretta Soto Moreno, member of FFI Leadership Council.

CM: On any given day, thousands of immigrants are locked up in prisons and jails as part of the U.S. immigration detention system. The system is composed largely of people who are either newly arrived, such as asylum seekers, or those individuals who have longstanding ties to their communities here in the U.S.

Individuals who flee their home countries to seek refuge in the U.S. and claim asylum at a port of entry have been subject to mandatory immigration detention since at least 1996 as a result of harsh policies signed into law by President Clinton. Those same laws expanded the list of aggravated felonies for which people like Legal Permanent Residents and others could be detained and made subject to deportation, including many non-violent offenses. Around that same time period, a series of tough on crime laws were passed that further criminalized communities of color. As a result, since 1996, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who have been sent to ICE detention.

Its also important to recognize that throughout this period of time the federal government has increased its use of criminal prosecutions for people migrating. The federal government considers illegal entry a misdemeanor while illegal re-entry is considered a felony. The family separation crisis grew out of these policies, forcing families to be split up needlessly and inhumanely.

COVID-19 has added another layer of complexity and urgency to the situation. Freedom for Immigrants and other partners are focused on helping to bond out people who are immunocompromised and medically vulnerable. We are also submitting parole requests for the release of people without paying cash bonds, but the federal government is only granting a small number of these requests. In addition, Freedom for Immigrants is tracking abuses related to the pandemic and the organized responses of people inside on this real-time map.

How did Freedom for Immigrants and Mission Driven Finance decide to collaborate on this new initiative, using money as a tool for social change rather than a weapon for exploitation?

LG: When we met Freedom for Immigrants and grasped the size and severity of the issue of immigrant detention, we knew we wanted to support their incredible work rehumanizing a cruel system. Immigration is part of our daily lives in our hometown of San Diego, where we have the most active land border crossing in the country and one in four San Diegans are born outside the U.S.

CM: At Freedom for Immigrants, we know human rights and immigration policy really well, but innovative finance is not our strength. It was critical to find our partners at Mission Driven Finance as they fully believe in our vision and worked within our ethical framework to co-create this fund expanding our national detention bond program.

LG: We partnered with Freedom for Immigrants to develop the Freedom100 Fund a first-of-its-kind opportunity to finance bonds and release 100 people from immigration detention across California and Louisiana at no cost to the individual. Once bonded out, individuals are eight times more likely to win their immigration cases. But without the ability to pay a bond, many individuals are forced to languish in immigration detention and away from their loved ones and communities and forced to navigate complex legal proceedings on their ownoften in a language that is not their first.

As more people have been detained and the costs of immigration bonds have skyrocketed (the median bond in California and Louisiana is $8,500), families and community groups that previously donated money to bond out their loved ones are now strapped for cash. This is a perfect space for impact investing: Amplifying limited philanthropic dollars.

CM: We chose California and Louisiana because they represent some of the best and worst jurisdictions for immigrants to win their cases, respectively. In Louisiana, 87.8% of all immigration detention cases are denied, whereas only 52.2% of cases in California are denied. By bonding out individuals in these two states, connecting them to supportive resources, and helping them make all their court appearances, we can demonstrate that the practice of detention isnt just inhumane and wildly subject to political bias its unnecessary.

So how does this fund actually work and what is the ultimate goal?

LG: The Freedom100 Fund is designed to extend the impact of donated dollars. In a nutshell, instead of making donations directly to post bonds, donors make grants into a reserve account that absorbs some of the risk to make the opportunity more attractive for private investors who might not have financed immigration bonds otherwise. The fund is structured to leverage $500,000 in the philanthropic reserve account at least four times, unlocking $2M of investor capital and ultimately expand the availability of rapid, free immigration bond financing.

The fund lends to Freedom for Immigrants to have the money to post bond directly at ICE field offices on behalf of 100 individuals. As individuals go to their immigration court appearances and get their cases resolved (positively or negatively), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repays Freedom for Immigrants which would then repay the fund.

We need every tool in the toolbox, including finance, to make a more just world. Our hope is that the Freedom100 Fund can provide dignity and care for 100 individuals immediately and hopefully scale to serve thousands. We also want the fund to serve as a model for how innovative finance can move the needle on some of our most difficult social and environmental challenges and quickly. The first capital from the fund flowed to Freedom For Immigrants earlier in July and theyve already bonded out eight individuals.

Why is this bond fund an impact investing fund instead of just a philanthropic effort?

LG: As an investment firm, we like to right-size the tool to the problem. Philanthropy makes a lot of sense for proving early on that a program can work, for subsidizing programs that dont have a functional market, and for taking on riskier financial positions to unlock other capital. But to fully address problems of this size, we have to mobilize more than just philanthropy.

Thanks to their donors, Freedom for Immigrants has built a successful detention bond program and critical case management support. And now donors are committing to that third scenario of unlocking other capital because they need more money in this fight than donations alone.

We always look for repayment pathways to see if impact investing is possible. As strange as it is, the fact that DHS repays bonds at the conclusion of immigration trials gave us the opportunity to explore an investment strategy with Freedom for Immigrants. Because of this fact, we were able to build this structure without burdening immigrants or their families, unlike most other bond financing. Its a highly unusual revenue source, but it is a revenue source!

If this system is so wrong how do we end it, as opposed to financing it? Clearly the Freedom100 Fund can help get people out of detention centers now a critical outcome but is it also enabling the system?

CM: This is a critical question we must continually ask ourselves as abolitionists. Freedom for Immigrants combines direct services to people in immigrant prisons and jails with policy and advocacy to end the system completely. When we decide on the scope of our work, we always ask ourselves whether what we are doing could lead to the perpetuation of the system. The Freedom100 Fund is a great example of this calculus.

Our goal of the fund is twofold:

1) Secure the freedom of 100 individuals currently incarcerated only because they cannot afford to pay a bond; and

2) Leverage the model to advocate that the incarceration of immigrants in our detention system is entirely unnecessary and should be abolished.

Paying the federal government bond is working within an unjust system to alleviate the suffering of people now. But our goal is to prevent anyone from ever having to suffer incarceration. The government justifies the system by assuming that if immigrants are not imprisoned, they will abscond and risk becoming a public charge. The truth is, the immigration detention system itself is the biggest charge on the American public.

Our taxpayer dollars fund this profit-driven system, enriching local governments and private prison corporations at the expense of us all. This fund will demonstrate that people are imprisoned solely because they cannot afford to pay an immigration bond, but when we are able to finance their freedom they are able to concentrate on winning their immigration cases and comply with what the government is asking of them. We are advocating for divestment from inhumane systems of incarceration and investment in community organizations that support and welcome immigrants.

Finally, how can people get involved? Who can be an investor?

LG: Anyone can donate to Freedom for Immigrants, or consult with your financial advisor about whether it's appropriate for you to invest in the fund through a charitable vehicle like a donor advised fund at your favorite community foundation. While only accredited investors are eligible to consider a direct investment in the Freedom100 Fund, we encourage everyone to learn more about collectively ending immigration detention by visiting Freedom for Immigrants site.

Thanks to Jasmine Rashid for her contributions to this piece. Full disclosures related to my work available here. This post does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and the author is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided herein.

Read the original post:

Blended Capital For Immigration Bonds: Introducing The Freedom100 Fund - Forbes