Dear Friend of IIA,
One year ago, we shared our vision for 2025: to remain steadfast in defending the rights of refugees and immigrants, ensuring access to due process, and fostering a true sense of home for everyone who walks through our doors.
This year has tested that commitment like never before. In what has been one of the most challenging periods in IIA’s 109-year history, I am deeply proud of our staff, volunteers, and community partners, whose dedication and compassion have never wavered. Together, we have continued to meet the ever-growing needs of our immigrant and refugee neighbors, even amid immense change.
This year has brought unprecedented challenges for Akron’s immigrant and refugee community. A federal executive order suspended all refugee resettlement, leaving families abroad stranded and pausing one of IIA’s founding programs. We were able to resettle only 28 individuals, compared to 489 individuals in 2024. Rising ICE activity across Ohio created fear and uncertainty, prompting IIA to host Know Your Rights presentations and community information sessions to ensure families understood their protections. Meanwhile, the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries placed thousands at risk of deportation, and our legal team worked tirelessly to guide clients through appeals and relief options during this difficult time.
Compounding these pressures, federal and state-level policies added new hardships. The Big Beautiful Bill cut healthcare access for immigrant families while increasing funding for ICE detention, deepening insecurity for families who have called Ohio home for years. Later in the year, the removal of SNAP benefits pushed many households closer to crisis. IIA responded quickly, connecting families with emergency food assistance and other critical resources, even as federal funding cuts threatened our own programs and the jobs of the staff who make this work possible.
Despite these challenges, hope and resilience shine through our clients’ stories.
This year, IIA helped a young gay man from Russia who was denied entry to the U.S. on a visitor visa and placed in deportation proceedings. He sought asylum out of fear of persecution if drafted into the Russian military, as well as for opposing the invasion of Ukraine. With the support of our legal team, he was granted asylum and is now on the path to lawful permanent residence. Today, he is pursuing law school in the United States and hopes to help others in similar situations, turning his experience into a future of advocacy and justice.
In June, we helped an unhoused immigrant mother and her two young sons spotted by a community member in a park during a thunderstorm with only one suitcase. Within days, we secured long-term housing, furnished their home, and set them up for stability and success. Today, the mother is employed, her children are safe, and she is learning English to build a stronger future. Proof that lasting stability is possible when a community comes together.
If I’m honest, this has been a hard year for our staff, our community, and especially the clients we serve. Families face food and housing insecurity, job loss, and the constant fear of deportation.
But no matter what happens, we continue to fight. We are providing critical legal services, connecting families with emergency food and housing, offering English and citizenship classes, and helping parents and children build safe, stable, and hopeful futures.
We need your help to keep this work going. Our goal is to raise $20,000 by January 15, and we are also collecting non-perishable food items and grocery store gift cards to support families in immediate need. Every gift, whether financial or in-kind, makes a life-changing difference.
Please act today: www.iiakron.org/take-action
Your support is not just important - it is critical. Lives depend on it.
With deepest gratitude,
Madhu Sharma
Executive Director
International Institute of Akron