(Tues., July 9, 2019) Barker, TX. – As alarming news about conditions at the US-Mexico border continues to intensify, international secular humanist charity Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) is adding to the growing list of religious and moral organizations calling for action on the crisis.

Through its Humanist Disaster Recovery (HDR) program, which serves as a focal point for the nonreligious community’s response to major natural disasters and complex humanitarian crises, FBB has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars given as grants to organizations worldwide. Its volunteers, staff and donors largely identify as humanists: individuals who emphasize tending to common human needs regardless of the validity of theological belief. FBB has raised more than $31,000 for immigrant and refugee causes since 2010, and is now turning HDR’s spotlight onto the US border and detention crisis.

While the number of migrants entering the country through the southern border of the United States has declined in recent years, most of these immigrants are now children, and most are fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The Trump administration’s policies regarding these asylum seekers and other immigrants have created horrifying conditions on both sides of the US’s southern border as well as in detention centers.

“Children and families are fleeing to our country in pursuit of the American dream—safety, freedom and the chance to prosper,” says Noelle George, FBB’s executive director. “Those who survive the journey are jailed in squalid conditions at overcrowded detention centers without legal representation. Current US immigration policies and practices are harmful, inhumane and even deadly. As humanists, we must respond.”

FBB’s comments bolster those made recently by allied nontheistic organizations, including American Atheists, which has condemned the US deaths of asylum seekers as “a collective disgrace;” American Ethical Union, which has denounced family separation as a violation of “profound ethical principles;” and American Humanist Association, which has called on “all individuals with any sense of decency to do anything in their power to mitigate the effects” of the United States’ “intentionally cruel” migrant detention policy.

FBB launched a fundraising campaign last week to support The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, which provides free legal services to adults and children in immigration custody in Arizona facing deportation. Donations can be made at: http://tinyurl.com/US-DetentionCrisis. In addition to raising funds for the Florence Project, FBB will be working with its service teams around the country to coordinate advocacy and action.

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Fast Facts about Foundation Beyond Belief:
Since 2010, FBB has given more than $2.5M to reputable charities including more than $31,000 to organizations serving immigrants and refugees.

FBB’s network includes more than 150 local service teams in the United States and internationally.

Volunteer teams in FBB’s network have donated 125,000 volunteer hours since the organization was founded in 2009.

Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2009 that unites the humanist community in charitable and volunteer efforts and advocates for compassionate action throughout the world.