Shield the Immigration Justice movement from digital threats

Organizations rallying to protect and defend the rights of immigrants, asylum seekers and migrants in our country are facing a unique scale of digital threat. 

We’ve seen an unprecedented wave of digital attacks across civic, political, and social change organizations — and small groups who advocate for and directly support immigrant communities are at heightened risk. 

Bad actors are using various dark methods to undermine these organizations’ ability to deliver services, take legal action, and advocate for better immigration policies. We’re seeing attempts at websites and mobile app hacks, extracting beneficiaries’ privacy by exfiltrating personally identifiable information from databases, and a rising fear of government intrusion — all of which erode community trust during a very volatile time. People’s livelihoods and physical safety are at stake.

While these groups are leaders in the communities fighting against the sea change of attitudes and policies that threaten immigrants in our country, they are often underfunded and unfamiliar with the steps needed to keep their systems, data and people digitally safe. 

These vulnerabilities are undermining our capacity to protect and defend immigrant communities — this is an urgent problem that needs intervention right now.

A digital security program for immigration justice 

We’re piloting an initial fund to shield up to 20 immigration-focused projects. We plan to raise about $250,000 to shore up the digital security of 15-20 security immigration organizations. Each security improvement project is expected to cost around $10,000.

Trestle Collaborative works with small non-profits to protect their computer systems (websites, online data storage, and applications) and any sensitive information they retain regarding employees, stakeholders, and their communities.

This enables organizations on the frontlines able to keep focused on their critical work while building up a stronger digital security.