Seattle (AP)-after as an immigration judge in Seattle, he rejected the deportment case against a Colombian man-exposing him to the accelerated removal-three people sat with him in the back of the courtroom, taking their keys to the family, helping him or her.
When Judge Brett Sigrt asked why they were doing this in court, the volunteers said that immigration and custom staff were outside the door and were waiting to take the man in custody, so it was their only chance to help him deal with his things. “The ice is in the waiting room?” the judge asked.
As President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign focuses on cities and countries led by Democrats and unleashing fear among asylum seekers and immigrants, their legal defenders have filed a lawsuit against this week, seeking defenses against arrests outside the Immigration Court. In the meantime, these volunteers are taking action.
A diverse group – leaders of faith, students, grandmothers, retired lawyers and teachers – appeared in immigration courts across the country to accompany immigrants at risk of being detained for deportation by ice masked employees. They give families moral and logistical support and testify as people are taken away.
The Northwest Immigrant Rights project was flooded with so many community members who wanted to help that they made a volunteer video, created “Know Your Rights” sheets in several languages, and started Google Leaf, where people register, said Stephanie Guy, a non -profit lawyer.
“We couldn’t do it without them,” Guy said. “Some volunteers require a break from work so that they can get in and help.”
Robbie Ror, a retired non -profit director, said he volunteered with volunteers.
“Being here makes people feel that they are remembered and recognized,” she said, “It’s such a bureaucratic and confusing process. We try to help them through it.”
Record Videos of Retention Online Online
Volunteers and legal aid groups have long provided a free legal orientation in the immigration court, but the arrests have set new challenges. From May, the government has been asking the judges to dismiss the deportment cases.
After the judge agreed, the ICE employees arrested them in the corridors and place them in the production of fast roads, no matter which legal immigration road he may have pursued. Once in custody, it is often more difficult to find or allow a lawyer. Immigration judges are employees of the enforcement branch, and although some of them oppose orders for dismissal of internal security lawyers in some cases, many of them have been provided.
Masked ice agents grabbed a Colombian man and took him to the hall. The volunteer took his backpack to give his family until he was taken away. Other cases in the package of the day included immigrants that did not appear. Parchert provided “removal” orders, allowing Ice to arrest them later.
Asked about these arrests and volunteers in the immigration courts, a senior spokesman for the Ministry of Homeland Security said that ICE is again applying the rule of law by canceling “the catch and release policy of Biden, which allowed millions of inseparable illegal aliens to be launched on US streets.”
Some volunteers have recorded arrests in the corridors of the courtroom, traumatic scenes that are spreading online. How many similar scenes happen throughout the country remains unclear. The Immigration Executive Service has not released the number of cases rejected or arrests committed in or near immigration courts.
While most volunteers have done this job without incidents, some of them have been arrested for interference with ice agents. New York controller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested after locking a weapon with a person in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent his detention. Lander’s wife, lawyer Meg Barnet, has just joined him in walking migrants from a courtroom to the elevator.
Helping families find their relatives when they disappear
The act of volunteers of the certificate has proved to be important as people disappear into a detention system that may look chaotic, leaving families without any information about their location for days.
In a waiting room serving the immigration courtroom in New York, a Spanish -speaking woman with long dark curly hair was sitting with anxiety with her daughter after she and her husband had separate hearing. He was nowhere to be found anywhere.
The Reverend Fabian Arias, an observer of the volunteer court, said that the woman whose first name was Alva, turned to him, asking “Where is my husband?” She showed him his picture.
“Ice kept him,” Arias told her, and tried to comfort her as she was shaking, late with tears. The judge did not reject the spouse’s case by giving him a lawyer until October. But this did not stop the ice agents from handcuffed it and take it away as soon as it came out of the court. The news sparked protest by immigration defenders, city officials and congressman. At a press conference, she gave her name only and asked her daughter to be refused.
Bryana Garcia, a college student at El Paso, Texas, said she attended hearing at the Immigration Court for weeks, where she informs people about their rights and then recorded ICE agents who take people in custody.
“We accompany people so they are not harassed and help people remember important phone numbers as their belongings are confiscated from ice,” she said.
Paris Thomas began voluntarily at the Denver Immigration Court after hearing efforts through a network of churches. Wearing a straw hat, he recently waited for people in the afternoon to arrive in the afternoon.
Thomas handed people a small paper flyer, which lists his rights in Spanish on one side and English on the other. A man who walks with a wife said “Thank you. Thank you.” Another man hugged him.
Denver Don Marsh volunteer said they were offering to walk people to their cars after the court’s appearances, so they could contact lawyers and family if the ice arrests them.
Marsh said he has never done anything like this before, but he wants to do something to preserve the “rule of law” of the nation now when unidentified state agents “grab” people outside the streets.
“If we are not all safe, no one is safe,” he said.
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Athanasio reported from New York and Train from Denver.