Name: Wyatt Wolfman
Social Justice Group: DACA and Immigration
Date of Fieldwork: December 4, 2017
Name of Organization: N/A
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Candice Cho – Deputy Chief of Staff of the New York City Law Department
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
We interviewed Candice Cho, Deputy Chief of Staff of the New York government. Candice is a lawyer that advises many people in the New York government including Mayor DeBlasio. She helps these people make important decisions and makes sure that those decisions are within legal boundaries.
What I learned:
This interview gave us lots of information from the legal standpoint of DACA. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. As long as you are 16 and younger and have no criminal record, you are eligible for DACA. If you are selected, you are no longer an undocumented immigrant, as you now have a Temporary Protected Status. The vast majority of the information we learned on this fieldwork was new and was instrumental in helping us continue our studies. One of the most important things that we learned was the legal process regarding immigration laws. As we previously learned during our studies of Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Beals, State v. Federal Law has always been an issue. Currently, immigration laws are right in the middle of this debate. New York as a state is saying no to the government. For example, if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) requests to enter a state jail, New York says no. This is because if the alleged criminal is an illegal immigrant, they cannot be deported. This is one of the many reasons why New York is a sanctuary city.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
Through the fieldwork, I learned that it’s impossible to help everybody instantly. DACA only helps some of the undocumented immigrants in America, creating a belief that there are “bad” immigrants and “good” immigrants. This idea deeply divides the immigrant community, turning a group of vulnerable people that desperately need each others support against themselves. Still, DACA remains the best thing there ever was, even though it couldn’t help everybody. This is what Candice Cho calls “gradual change.” “You have to start by picking the lowest hanging fruit before you can continue.”
