On a cold and windy November day, as the light was fading, Rama, an eighteen-year-old man from Nepal, walked out of the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma, WA, with no jacket on, wearing only a T-shirt. Rama was carrying a clear plastic bag containing his few belongings, including important papers for his asylum case. He spoke no English and he was shivering from the cold. These were his first steps as a free person in the United States, and he was walking outside into an industrial district in Tacoma. He had no idea where he was or how he would unite with relatives in New York. 

Surely, somewhere buried in his countenance, there was some joy at having secured his release months after fleeing religious persecution in his native country. But all the AIDNW volunteers in their warm coats and hats at the AIDNW Welcome Center RV could see was fear, confusion, and discomfort from the cold wind. 

Several AIDNW volunteers welcomed him into the warm RV and outfitted him with a backpack for his stuff and a nice new parka, hat, and gloves. When he was able to look at himself in the mirror, his face said he was beginning to believe, “YES, I can do this”. 

Within an hour the AIDNW Welcome Center volunteers had connected Rama by phone with his relatives in New York. They had helped Rama purchase his airline ticket for later that night, knowing AIDNW accompaniment drivers would get him to the airport in Seattle. He was all smiles. No doubt Rama would still face challenges in his new, strange country, but he was off to a good start! 

Immigrants who are released from the ICE Detention Center are experiencing two very different emotions when they walk out the release gate. On one hand, they are filled with joy for gaining their freedom, but they also may have some anxieties about what will happen next.

Released immigrants are liable to be walking out into a cold, wet Tacoma late-afternoon, clad only the clothes they arrived in, and carrying their few belongings and important papers in a clear plastic garbage bag. They may know they wish to unite with family members in some distant part of the United States, but have no idea of how they are going to get there or where they are going to sleep that night. They’re not just in a strange part of a strange city; this may also be their first experience in a new country where they’ve never been before and may not speak much or any English.

The immediate obstacles facing them can seem daunting. One can imagine the doubts they may be feeling about how they will survive the next 24-hours.

This scenario gets played out daily when detained immigrants, mostly asylum seekers, are released to find their way to family or sponsors on their own. These men and women  come from countries as diverse as China, Russia, Somalia, Cambodia, Brazil, or Cuba, but they all share conflicting emotions of joy coupled with anxiety as they walk out that gate.

That’s what AIDNW does at the Welcome Center RV parked by the curb in front of the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Trained volunteers engage with women and men to help solve the small immediate problems that are causing anxiety, so they can revel in the joy of entering their new homeland. For some asylum seekers that is the culmination of a dream for safety of many months, sometimes years.