West Virginia Volunteers Sustain Solidarity Fund Amid Intensifying Deportation Crackdowns

As federal immigration enforcement intensifies under the Trump administration, a grassroots network of West Virginians is working to protect immigrant families facing sudden financial and legal crises.

In April 2025, volunteers in Kanawha County established the West Virginia Solidarity Fund, a community initiative created to reassure immigrant residents that they are not alone and to provide emergency financial assistance during unexpected hardships triggered by stepped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions.

Organizers say the need for such support has only grown. Since its launch, the fund has assisted families across the state in a range of urgent situations, including:

• covering newly imposed asylum-application fees for two minors;
• providing rent and utility support for several families after a primary earner was detained or deported;
• helping to meet legal expenses and commissary costs for a restaurant worker who spent more than six months in ICE detention;
• assisting a family with passport fees needed to reunite with a deported loved one.

Community advocates describe the fund as both a practical resource and a symbol of solidarity at a time when immigrant communities in West Virginia face heightened fear and uncertainty.