hi Kari, just wanted to add a suggestion to something that you wrote: "If and when ICE descends upon my beloved borough, I vow to use my privilege as a middle class white lady over 40 to be annoying as hell."
I read this right after coming off of a volunteer shift doing "court watch" in my city. what I've been observing recently in this work (which admittedly is new for me and I don't have a ton of experience with), is that ice seems to be pretty happy to arrest people at the immigration courthouse because it's a lot more difficult to de-arrest someone there. so what a lot of immigrant justice organizations are trying to do is have people physically present, observing immigration court proceedings and making a note of the name and "A number" of anyone who is detained by ice. then that information can be turned around to any volunteer attorneys that are working to get people out of detention.
since just last week my local courthouse has had a significant increase in the number of dhs/ice officers that are on site to detain people, I think in response to what's happening in LA.
I wanted to share this because people may be waiting to respond until ice comes into their neighborhoods, as you described. however, many ice detentions are happening in other spaces... and I think it's crucial that we actively step in whenever and however we can to let them know that they are being watched and intervene when possible.
if at all possible I strongly encourage folks to see how they can get involved with court watching and similar activities; observing first hand I can see just how critical it is to have people there in solidarity and watching what they are doing.
also I witnessed two people being detained today alone, which is really scary. so I don't want to diminish how this type of observation requires courage, as you described. however, as another white woman, I don't really feel worried about DHS in terms of how they interact with me. I'm just there to observe and get or share information so it's not as confrontational as a protest actually...
Thanks for the comment. I have a full time job, which makes in person court watching a bit tricky, and as my husband is not full time employed the major bread winning falls to me at present. This is a very good suggestion though, and i think it’s a great option for folks with a flexible schedule.
I also admittedly finished writing this on about 4 hours of sleep so that didn’t come out quite as eloquently as I would have liked.
oh yeah, it's definitely not really a critique so much as an addendum to what you wrote. I don't think that people are necessarily aware of these different avenues for support so just figured I'd chime in with that information
hi Kari, just wanted to add a suggestion to something that you wrote: "If and when ICE descends upon my beloved borough, I vow to use my privilege as a middle class white lady over 40 to be annoying as hell."
I read this right after coming off of a volunteer shift doing "court watch" in my city. what I've been observing recently in this work (which admittedly is new for me and I don't have a ton of experience with), is that ice seems to be pretty happy to arrest people at the immigration courthouse because it's a lot more difficult to de-arrest someone there. so what a lot of immigrant justice organizations are trying to do is have people physically present, observing immigration court proceedings and making a note of the name and "A number" of anyone who is detained by ice. then that information can be turned around to any volunteer attorneys that are working to get people out of detention.
since just last week my local courthouse has had a significant increase in the number of dhs/ice officers that are on site to detain people, I think in response to what's happening in LA.
I wanted to share this because people may be waiting to respond until ice comes into their neighborhoods, as you described. however, many ice detentions are happening in other spaces... and I think it's crucial that we actively step in whenever and however we can to let them know that they are being watched and intervene when possible.
if at all possible I strongly encourage folks to see how they can get involved with court watching and similar activities; observing first hand I can see just how critical it is to have people there in solidarity and watching what they are doing.
in community, as always.
also I witnessed two people being detained today alone, which is really scary. so I don't want to diminish how this type of observation requires courage, as you described. however, as another white woman, I don't really feel worried about DHS in terms of how they interact with me. I'm just there to observe and get or share information so it's not as confrontational as a protest actually...
Thanks for the comment. I have a full time job, which makes in person court watching a bit tricky, and as my husband is not full time employed the major bread winning falls to me at present. This is a very good suggestion though, and i think it’s a great option for folks with a flexible schedule.
I also admittedly finished writing this on about 4 hours of sleep so that didn’t come out quite as eloquently as I would have liked.
oh yeah, it's definitely not really a critique so much as an addendum to what you wrote. I don't think that people are necessarily aware of these different avenues for support so just figured I'd chime in with that information
Didn’t take it as one! And it’s very useful bc you’re right, people don’t know and there are so many ways to get involved.
https://youtu.be/ot8MMedAA9I?feature=shared