Abide in Love St. Louis was created in October 2025 and is an affiliate of the original Abide in Love group, which formed in Rolla, MO to aid immigrants in their community and detention center. We are a non-partisan group of volunteers from a variety of spiritual backgrounds, all dedicated to peaceful advocacy and social change.

Most of the detainees are picked up in larger Missouri cities like St. Louis and around the metropolitan area, but a small number are just passing through the state or are from other areas. Many are picked up at traffic stops. The detainees process through ICE and then are typically held at the detention centers in Rolla, Ste. Genevieve and Springfield before being moved. 

NO! If someone is picked up by ICE and has any current criminal charges against them, they are transferred to federal custody and assigned a public defender. The detainees we are helping are often not offered their “one free phone call” so families or friends might not even know where they are. Most of the population we have been working with came to our country through correct channels - they have student or work visas, passports, green cards, resident cards, etc., yet are being detained and threatened with deportation with no due process.    

In some cases, the detainee is the breadwinner for the family. Once that breadwinner is no longer present with the family, many things happen including some crises. In other cases the detainee is a mother who has left children at home. We will spend money on groceries, utilities, calling cards for communication, diapers, clothing, rent assistance, etc.

We are referred families by Rapid Response as well as the other Abide in Love affiliate groups. We can help with power of attorney, referring to legal help, transferring items from the detainee which are taken when detained, passports for children and family members to join the detainee if deported or voluntarily deported, help to keep the children in school, and ongoing planning for their family situation.

Please see our Volunteer page for more information. Our volunteers support with Family Outreach, Community Outreach, Marketing, Social Media, and Fundraising efforts. Many families are Spanish speaking, so bilingual speakers are of great help. There are many ways to help regardless of your language background!

Please see our Volunteer page, or send an email to volunteer@abideinlovestl.org. We will let you know about upcoming meetings and volunteer opportunities.

We feel the work we are doing is a form of protest in itself. While we do not participate in protests as a group, we do encourage our members to do so on their own behalf. We also strongly encourage reaching out directly to lawmakers to make one’s opinions known and to state how bills affecting our immigrant neighbors affect our whole community.   

You can visit the Donate page of our site, or donate on Venmo to @abideinlovestlouis 

If you prefer to send a check, please call 314-325-8570 for more information.