Fools Mission began as an immigration story.

Fools Mission founders Thomas and Macrina first met in 2008 in Sacramento, at an organizing meeting for health care reform. In 2009, Macrina’s family was thrown into a tailspin by the deportation of the father of her six children. Thomas, along with family, clergy, and friends, accompanied her through the many immigration hearings that followed as she struggled to keep her family afloat.

A reporter from the San Jose Mercury News was also present, scribbling furiously in a notebook. In the lobby, his partner awaited opportunities to capture the family’s struggle for survival on video. After winning her cancellation of removal case, the family’s story became an award-winning documentary, Torn Apart, which you can watch on our website here.

Macrina identified Thomas in open court as “my brother,” which opened his heart to a new kind of familial relationship. To this day, they are hermano and hermana — and after winning her case, Thomas and Macrina went on to become founding members of Fools Mission .

During the course of Macrina’s legal proceedings, the incipient Fools Mission community received a street-level education about how deportation destroys families. And to this day, the family credits our accompaniment with providing resources and companionship that they needed to survive this traumatic experience. In turn, Macrina’s steady presence, translation skills, and peer counseling have enabled Fools Mission to expand our circle and bring more people into our ministry.

Our identities as fools are inspired by and have benefited from years of association with an organization in San Francisco called the Faithful Fools Street Ministry.