News & Views

A Staff Member at the Border: January 2019

“January 21, 2019

Tijuana Day One–

And so it began.

This morning, seven students and three faculty from the University of Pennsylvania’s Transnational Legal Clinic traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, to volunteer with Al Otro Lado, or AOL, an organization that works with refugees seeking asylum and protection from the lives they left behind. Our work today did not include going to the border between Mexico and the United States itself. That will be tomorrow. Instead, we dived right it, doing whatever work was needed and our skills would allow.

Our orientation was relatively brief, perhaps 90 minutes in total. But in that time, we learned about the work, the guests we would serve, the area where we were located, and the dangers inherent in working with a population that both the Mexican and U.S. governments have deemed undesirable: men and women whose lives have been turned upside down by the violence that surrounds them, seeking protection within a system that has closed its doors to all but the very few.”

Ayo Gansallo, Senior Staff Attorney, went to the Tijuana border for a week in January. Learn more about what is happening at the border from Ayo’s daily blogposts.

TONIGHT (4/20) - Join us ONLINE at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!

Join us ONLINE at 6:45PM TONIGHT, Thursday, April 20th, for HIAS PA's 2023 Golden Door Awards: United for Immigrants!

Happy Passover from HIAS Pennsylvania!HIAS PA is closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover

HIAS Pennsylvania will be closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover from 1PM on Wednesday, April 5th through Friday, April 7th, and on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th.

Join us at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!United for Immigrants

The Golden Door Awards is HIAS Pennsylvania's annual fundraiser. Your generous support helps us serve low-income immigrants from all over the world as they build new lives in our community.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

TONIGHT: Join us at the table!Join us for Thankful Together!

Thankful Together, formerly known as Refugee Thanksgiving, is happening TONIGHT at 6PM!

Register here to join us tonight: https://hiaspa1.wpengine.com/event/thankful-together-2021/

Celebrate our volunteers who make this all possible!Click here at 11:45AM to join our Annual Meeting!

Click here to join our virtual Annual Meeting!

The Annual Meeting starts at noon, but join us at 11:45AM for an informal chat before the event!

POSTPONED! Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan

Today's Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan Facebook Live event has been postponed due to a worldwide Facebook outage. We will update you as soon as possible about rescheduling the event.