Between 2017 and 2018, thousands of migrant parents were separated from their children under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Federal court filings from the Department of Justice and American Civil Liberties Union last month state that, years later, the parents of some 545 migrant children currently in the custody of the United States still have not been found.
Now, these children are being held in U.S. immigration facilities, and federally appointed lawyers say they cannot find the parents they were tasked with locating.
Here to help is Homeis, a digital social network specifically for immigrants. The app helps them connect with one another, get legal and immigration advice, connect with mental-health services and find jobs.
The goal, says co-founder and CEO Ran Harnevo, is to empower immigrants and provide a community to help tackle the challenges that come with living in a new country.
“We believe that immigration is a force of positivity, diversity and tolerance. Immigrants are hard workers, innovators, and an essential part of our society’s fabric,” Harnevo told Built In after the company raised $12 million last year. “The political climate just reinforces our passion to empower these great communities, and help immigrants support each other.”
After learning about these 545 children, the NYC-based startup launched the 545 Hotline to try to track down relatives for the separated children. The hope is that, by tapping into its global network of 400,000 Latino users, the information that is shared can help reunite these families.
“We have the biggest digital Latino community in the U.S.,” Laura Arrazola Lievano, the head of Latin American communities at Homeis, told Built In. “The solution to a problem like this — obviously created by the U.S. government — is to use the power of social media. If all these lawyers working for the administration couldn’t locate the families of these children that are at the border, we believe that Homeis can. Because we have such a big community of Latino immigrants, we believe harnessing the power of social media will help reunify these families.”
To be clear, Homeis is simply a first step. It does not have the legal resources to make the actual reunification happen. However, it can be an effective way for the Latino community to share information with one another in an effort to find the families of these children. Then, once the family is located, the company can help connect them with lawyers or nonprofits who do have the power and legal expertise to actually facilitate a reunion.
“We all talk about the power of social media. It’s the way to sell, it’s the way to do everything nowadays,” Lievano said. “But using social media for good has not been the most common. [Homeis] can be a means to an end to solve a problem that very much affects the Latino community.”
For Lievano, the mission of the 545 Hotline and Homeis in general is personal. Born and raised in Colombia, she says social justice was always important to her. She worked as an early childhood infrastructure consultant to the Colombian government for several years before earning her master’s at the Yale School of Management. She then decided to join the Homeis team because, while it wasn’t a government entity, it still allowed her to have a positive impact on a vulnerable community: Latino immigrants in the U.S.
“We’re reaching all of Latinos in the U.S., which is a population that has suffered many, many issues — not just right now with the current administration, but throughout the years,” Lievano said. “What excites me the most is to be able to actually, tangibly solve problems that Latinos and, in general, immigrants have been facing for so long. To give a voice to a community that didn’t have one and to empower them to lead amazing lives with financial services and legal resources — everything they need to really contribute to society — is exciting.”
