Taneeza Islam led an emergency fund that helped 1,750 immigrant families
Sioux Falls immigration lawyer Taneeza Islam, who publicly identifies as Muslim, helped build South Dakota Voices for Peace. During the pandemic, the team raised $1.2 million for an immigrant emergency relief fund that distributed cash assistance to 1,750 families, according to Mitchell Hamline School of Law. The nonprofit also provided free immigration legal services for unaccompanied children and immigrant survivors of violence.
A legal-services project before the emergency fund
Mitchell Hamline’s 2021 profile records Islam’s move to Sioux Falls in 2012 and a Bush Fellowship the following year. She used the fellowship to examine access to legal services and start a two-year incubator pilot. The Bush Foundation explicitly identifies her as an American Muslim civil-rights lawyer and describes access to lawyers as part of community wellbeing.
Two organizations, different responsibilities
South Dakota Voices for Peace dates its incorporation to October 2017, after organizing around legislation affecting Muslim, immigrant and refugee communities. Its history also identifies South Dakota Voices for Justice as a separate sister organization devoted to lobbying and policy. Keeping those roles distinct makes the institutional story easier to follow.
The law-school profile dates the start of free legal services for unaccompanied children and immigrant survivors of violence to November 2019. The pandemic cash-assistance program came within this longer effort to build support, rather than being the organization’s only activity.
What the relief figures describe
The $1.2 million and 1,750-family figures belong to the response described in July 2021. They are not current financial totals or an indication that the emergency fund is still accepting applicants. For present services, start with the organization’s own information.
The wider civil-rights collection below places this South Dakota example alongside other forms of advocacy. A useful thread to follow is how a named person’s professional training becomes a service that other people can reach.
Hear the organizers describe their decisions
A July 9, 2025 StoryCorps conversation between Taneeza Islam and colleague Jennifer Dreiske offers a different route into this history. The archive lists a 42-minute, 53-second recording and supplies a time-coded subject log. Readers can follow particular parts of the response instead of relying only on the fundraising total.
The log points to translating public-health materials at 11:16, emergency fundraising at 17:07, a vaccination partnership at 25:10 and door-to-door outreach at 30:35. At 35:51, the discussion turns to asking communities what they need. These are guides to the participants’ recollections, not independently audited outcomes.
The recording is cataloged under the Library of Congress COVID-19 American History Project. Listening alongside the earlier law-school profile allows readers to compare a contemporary institutional account with the organizers’ later reflections. The archive link appears in the sources below.
Follow the story
Explore the original reporting and organizational records:
Selected local stories, not a complete account of the state. Events and figures refer to the periods stated above. Check directly with organizations for current services.