Name: Catalina McGraw

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Immigration—Latin America

Date of Fieldwork: February 16, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Razeen Zaman

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Wednesday February 16th, our group had the pleasure of meeting with Razeen Zaman, the head of the NYU Immigration Defense Initiative, (NYUIDI). Zaman discussed how the creation of the NYUIDI was brought on as the direct result of Donald Trump’s harsh immigration laws. Students and their family members were stuck in legal battles against ICE, with little guidance. Zaman saw this, and looked to help students and their families by educating them about their rights against ICE, what ICE can legally do, and sometimes provide legal representation.

Zaman also spoke about how she thinks immigration will change in the future. She notes that legeslation may become less hostile, but we cannot get our hopes up. This interview was a great segway into looking at the future of immigration in our country. From Mr. Gutierrez talking about the history of latin immigration just hours before, and Ms. Zaman explain current issues, it gave me a picture of immigration as a whole.