Name: Marlowe

Social Justice Group: DACA and Immigration

Date of Fieldwork: January 24, 2018

Name of Organization: East End Temple

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Sara Gonzalo, Leader of NCS accompany program

Type of Fieldwork: Other

What I did:

We sat down with a huge number of people and listened to Sara talk. She touched on all different topics but the main point was to teach everyone in the room how to accompany undocumented immigrants through different scenarios without offending them and helping them as much as possible. Accompanying is when people like us accompany undocumented immigrants or regular immigrants through ICE hearings, court cases, and etc. in order to make sure they are not taken advantage of.

What I learned:

I learned so much about how to interact with undocumented immigrants in a respectful way. I learned to never ask their immigration status, relationship status, family background, or really anything personal, because when accompanying them through an ICE hearing its not necessary.

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

I learned how important social justice work specifically accompanying is to these people because if we are not there, ICE could take advantage of them and work “in the dark” without any true justice going on. But because we are there completing social justice work we can ensure that an educated person on the topic that knows what is right and wrong and most importantly, has a voice, can stand up for the immigrant if anything goes wrong.