The Mission & Vision
Mission Statement:
The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund facilitates a revolving immigration bond fund to pay immigration bonds that frees individuals from ICE custody and gathers community to advocate for the abolition of immigration detention and surveillance.
Values Statement:
The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund believes that all individuals, without any exceptions, are worthy of dignity and respect and that the detention of all individuals is unjust, unnecessary, and should be abolished.
Vision Statement:
The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund envisions a world where people are free to move and stay with autonomy.
Our History
The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund started as a coalition effort that grew out of conversations in the Chicago area among organizers and attorneys in 2017-2019 to start a revolving bond fund. Many of them had noticed, through their work, that although people were able to get bond in immigration court, many were not able to afford to pay these funds. Prolonged stays in immigration detention led to worse outcomes in their immigration cases, and their mental and physical health. A solution was needed.
The inaugural Midwest Immigration Bond Fund Coalition came together in May 2020. Fundraising for a seed fund began right away, and in February 2021, we paid out our first bond as an organization.
MIBF incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit-organization in Chicago, Illinois in July 2021 and has an all-volunteer board of directors from across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. MIBF began paying bonds in what was then the Chicago Immigration Court service area, covering bonds for residents of, and people detained in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
In January of 2025, MIBF decided to expand their service area to include Minnesota, their first such expansion since their founding.
We are proudly a part of the National Bail Fund Network, a coalition of both pretrial and immigration bond funds across the United States dedicated to the abolition of mass incarceration.