Name: Wyatt

Social Justice Group: DACA and Immigration

Date of Fieldwork: January 3, 2018

Name of Organization: New York City Office of Immigrant Affairs (check)

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Sam Solomon, Deputy of Policy

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We went to the New York City immigration office and interviewed Sam Solomon, Deputy of Policy. Primarily, he writes bills and advises people higher up in the government (like the mayor) on immigration based issues.

What I learned:

Contrary to our previous beliefs, New York City does not say no to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers that could deport inmates. Instead, they ask the inmate if they would like to speak to ICE officials. Sam Soloman said that although they give this option, the inmates say no the vast majority of the time, however, there are a few instances where somebody would like to meet with ICE officials. The first example is if the inmate is the victim of another crime involving another potential illegal immigrant. They would still be questioned by ICE, but not about their own status. The other case is if they haven’t committed the alleged crime and they need to tell ICE that they have the wrong person. This can happen when the police have the wrong person with the same name as the person they are looking for.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

We learned that lawmakers really do listen to