Standing beside you: Solidarity with immigrants in the courts

The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in New York City towers above the street, the tallest federal office building in the country-so big it has its own ZIP code. But far more intimidating is what happens inside, where immigration courts decide the fate of thousands of families who want to remain in this country.

Since the Trump administration took over, the families-who are following the rules, reporting to court as required-are even more fearful. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are detaining and attempting to deport immigrants outside the courtrooms, even when a judge has just granted them asylum and adjudicated their cases. Thousands have been arrested at 26 Federal Plaza, the Javits building, as they've come out of their court hearings. Many are dragged to a detention area on another floor of the building.

Members of the Professional Staff Congress, the faculty-staff union for the City University of New York, are appalled. And, as this video makes clear, they are doing more than raising their voices: "We put our boots on the ground." Members march, rally, write and show up at the courthouse to support immigrants on what PSC Secretary Andrea Vasquez calls "the worst day of their lives."

Given the gutting of the Biden administration's 2021 "protected areas" memo earlier in the year, which allows for immigration enforcement actions to take place in courthouses, the number of arrests has risen. Bearing witness is a big part of showing up at court, says Vasquez, who is leading the effort through PSC's Immigrant Solidarity Working Group. PSC members also distribute "know your rights" information in nine different languages, so people understand they do not have to open their doors to ICE and they can insist on having legal representation. The volunteers take contact information so loved ones can be reached in case of arrest; that information is sometimes passed on to trusted attorneys and social workers to help track individuals through the detention system.

PSC members are also simply sitting with people who are waiting for their time in court, sometimes for hours. It can be a welcome distraction. Sometimes they entertain small children, reading them the books they bring. They may not be able to stop ICE from arresting these immigrants, but they can help in smaller ways. "We want immigrant families and neighbors to know that there are people willing to show up for them, and to know that we feel that what our government is doing is wrong," says Vasquez.

Showing up with compassion

Since May, more than 200 members from every CUNY campus have taken "court support" training and made more than 430 visits to the federal immigration courthouses. They gather every Thursday and Friday morning for this work, which is intentionally nonviolent and nonconfrontational. Their focus is on supporting families facing the possibility of separation, rather than on condemning ICE officers or "deluding" themselves into thinking they can change the system in this way.

The scene can be intimidating, says Robert Cowan, an English professor at Kingsborough Community College. "You go to certain floors and there are 15 ICE officers," he says. "They're armed and armored, and they're all masked." Many are physically imposing men. "When we go into those waiting rooms, people look really nervous. They would be nervous anyway, but with all of that presence there they really look freaked out."

Just being a supportive presence can ease that anxiety, or at least provide temporary distraction.

Cowan speaks French, so he's spent time with Haitian and African immigrants when he is on "watch," and he queues up a translation app for languages he does not speak. Recently he was able to communicate with a man from Guinea who spoke only Fula.

On other visits, he's read books with children and watched as children from Haiti and Russia took up crayons and colored together. "We were able to connect them and made everybody smile," says Cowan. "It definitely defused a lot of the tension in the room." As it turns out, both families were able to leave the courthouse without being detained.

Serving the students

Why would a union do this sort of work? Vasquez explains that a large number of CUNY students are noncitizens. "All of our colleges are Hispanic-serving institutions," she says. "We are very close to our students. We are a social justice union and as such we've always become involved in things that are important to our members and to our students."

Cowan says Kingsborough Community College, where he teaches English, has students from 140 different countries. The fear among immigrants is palpable. "Last spring I had students crying in my classroom about the immigration situation," he says. "In my classroom, not just in my office."

Activism at every level

The immigrant work is just one meaningful part of a larger effort. "We realized in January that we had to fortify ourselves as a union, and we also believe that a union movement is crucial in this moment of authoritarianism in this country," says Vasquez.

The union has shown up in force at the Hands Off NYC marches, resisting a federal takeover of the city. They've demanded that professors have the freedom to teach and students have the freedom to learn without restraints on class content or speech. Members have protested the arrests of students, faculty and staff over their protests regarding Palestine. They have long fought for the funding a public university like CUNY needs to support its diverse student population and the faculty and staff who work with them.

In May, members delivered a petition with more than 7,300 signatures to CUNY administrators demanding that ICE be kept off CUNY campuses, that CUNY students and staff be provided with emergency legal representation in facing deportation or visa cancellation, and that no ICE or Homeland Security recruitment be allowed on campuses, among other demands. PSC has also promoted know your rights sessions and distributed information to help immigrants stay safe.

PSC members who sit beside immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza "understand that vulnerable people need the community to show up and witness and to decry the violence that is being done not only to families but also to our democratic institutions," said PSC President James Davis at a recent rally. "They understand that everybody needs to not only know their rights but to be able to exercise those rights, and that in this moment the way that we win is we fight cruelty with care and we fight contempt with compassion."

[Virginia Myers]

For more coverage of PSC court actions, read this article in PSC's publication Clarion.