Meet our Team: Laura & Lupita

As two staff members who together have 23 years of experience providing services for immigrants at Canal Alliance, we can honestly say that we have never experienced a time when there was more fear or need within the immigrant community. 

Our immigrant neighbors urgently need your help. 

Thousands of people are making the difficult decision to leave their homes in Guatemala and other Central American countries due to levels of poverty and violence that are unimaginable to most of us. After making the difficult choice to leave their families and communities, they embark on arduous journeys to get to a country where, like many immigrants before them, they dream of working hard to build a safe and stable future for themselves and their children.  

At our border, families and individuals are confronted with yet more inhumanity. They are harassed by immigration officials who encourage them to drop their asylum claims. They are placed in over-crowded and often very cold cells and barely given anything to eat or drink, stripped of their possessions and left with only the clothing on their backs. Even young children are often denied basic medical care. All this is happening as they exercise their legal right to seek asylum in the United States. 

This humanitarian crisis doesn’t end at our border – it is also happening right here in Marin. As immigrants are released from detention centers, they come to communities across the country to process their legal paperwork and begin their new lives. At Canal Alliance, we see newly arrived immigrants every day.  

To help families affected by this humanitarian crisis, Canal Alliance depends on generous, compassionate people like you. We are the only provider of comprehensive immigration and social services in Marin County. By supporting our work, you can have a positive impact on the lives of our immigrant neighbors. 

Won’t you please make a gift today? 

Because your partnership is so crucial, we want to give you an on-the-ground look at how your support will have a powerful impact on the lives of recently arrived immigrants. 

There are four of us on staff who provide direct social services to immigrants and their families. Each of us sees up to seven families a day, many of whom have experienced the inhumane treatment at the border that is making headlines across the country. Every hour we meet with a different family, each with their own story, needs and expectations.

Many walk into our office with a look of trepidation – they have been through so much. As they sit down with us, we make a point of first asking, “¿Cómo le fue?”, or, “how was your journey?” We know this can be a painful topic, but when we ask about their experience, many people visibly relax as they sense our genuine concern for their well-being. Our goal is to develop a relationship with them so they trust us to be a true partner in the work of building their new lives. 

Lupita recently worked with Oscar and his seven-year-old son, Alexander. They had spent two weeks in ‘la hielera’, or ‘the icebox’, freezing cold rooms at detention centers where officials place immigrants to pressure them into rescinding their asylum claims and leaving the United States. The room was so cold that Oscar and his son had to hold tight throughout the day just to stay warm. Oscar told Lupita, “my biggest fear was that they’d take my son away. I wouldn’t wish what happened to us on anyone.”  

It is hard to hear stories like Oscar’s and Alexander’s – and we hear so many of them. As immigrants ourselves, we can’t help but identify with some of the stories we hear. But in order to help, we hold back our tears and focus on listening attentively and compassionately as we begin to think how we can match available resources with each person’s unique needs.  

For Oscar and Alexander, it was essential that they received prompt medical care, especially since so many people have gotten sick at detention centers. Lupita referred them to the community health clinic and ensured that Alexander received his immunizations. They are now getting to work on pursuing the dreams that brought them to the United States: Oscar is learning English through our Adult and Career Education program, and we’ve helped Oscar enroll Alexander in school. He is excited to be attending school as a second grader. 

Because of the trauma that Oscar and Alexander had experienced throughout their journey, Lupita also referred them to our behavioral health team. Like many immigrants, Oscar was not immediately interested in this type of help; he was focused on supporting his son and earning money to send back home to loved ones. But our job is to be compassionate, supportive, and persuasive – to help them see how all of our services, including behavioral health, can help them achieve their goals.  

We cannot support newcomers like Oscar and Alexander without the help of donors like you. Please make a gift today to ensure that our immigrant neighbors have access to the services they need. 

With your support, we provide personalized services to meet whatever needs our clients may have. For many people, including Oscar and Alexander, this means addressing their immediate needs as they settle into their new community. But our support doesn’t end there: as our clients’ needs and goals change, we are here to help them, whether by providing immigration assistance, helping parents like Oscar gain job skills, or supporting children like Alexander to succeed in school and graduate from college. 

Because of people like you, immigrants and their families are able to create the lives they dreamed of when they decided to make the difficult journey to the United States. 

Through this crisis, we are witness to both the best and the worst in people. While we hear many appalling stories from our clients that mirror those we hear on the news, we are inspired by the resilience of our clients and heartened by the generosity of our volunteers and donors, like you. 

We can be a community that stands with immigrants and helps them achieve their dreams. 

Please make your most generous gift today.  

With gratitude for your generosity, 

Lupita Magaña and Laura Jiménez-Diecks