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Berkeley Hosts Legal Observer Training

Illustration by Fintan O’Sullivan The Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership led a training for volunteer legal observers in Berkeley on November 13.

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Illustration by Fintan O’Sullivan

The Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP) led a training for volunteer legal observers in Berkeley on November 13. Participants joined a team of legal observers who will watch to make sure that people’s rights are respected in the event of arrests, raids, or other actions by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).

About sixty participants were taught how to verify ICE activity and interact with ICE officers, and performed role playing scenarios.

The ACILEP formed shortly after the 2016 presidential election, and its members include Centro Legal de la Raza, the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and other nonprofit organizations.

The ACILEP training was supported by Berkeley’s Sanctuary City Task Force, a group working to develop programs and procedures to defend immigrant and undocumented communities in accordance with the city’s Sanctuary City policy.

A developing component of sanctuary efforts in Berkeley and Alameda County is the implementation of rapid response networks that coordinate quick action to monitor and protect against federal immigration enforcement.

ACILEP Rapid Response Coordinator Malena Mayorga said, “Many of the tactics ICE uses violate people’s constitutional rights, such as entering homes without a valid warrant by using lies and intimidation, not respecting people’s right to remain silent and tricking people into signing away their due process rights.” According to Mayorga, when ICE enforcement activity is reported to the ACILEP hotline, available legal observers travel to the reported location to verify and document activity. Then, the observers connect impacted people to ACILEP staff, who refer them to necessary legal and other services.

“The current federal government is aggressively targeting immigrants and communities of color. It uses labels and policies to criminalize these communities in order to justify racialized policing, mass imprisonment, detentions and deportations,” stated Mayorga.

She said that while President Barack Obama deported more immigrants than any other previous administration, the number of immigration detentions in the first six months of the Trump administration were approximately forty percent higher than the same period last year.

Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque participates in the Sanctuary City Task Force. Qal’bu Maryam President Rabi’a Keeble shared Mayorga’s concern that ICE targets not just immigrant communities, but specifically immigrant communities of color.

Regarding her participation in the Sanctuary City Task Force and support of ACILEP, Keeble said, “Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque is a mosque dedicated to social justice for all people, immigrants, blacks, all genders, women. We see being part of ACILEP as a natural step in our mosque’s dedication.”

Keeble said she views legal observers as a necessary component of helping immigrants during encounters with ICE and their tactics. “Often, when people don’t speak English, or because of being surprised, and frightened, they may not recall their rights, or how to talk to ICE,” she said. “Legal observers record, film, and recollect these events, and if necessary provide testimony,” Keeble continued.

ACILEP and other organizations continue to train volunteers for rapid response efforts.

In addition to ACILEP’s legal observer trainings, the San Francisco Bar Association hosts events to prepare volunteer attorneys to provide emergency immigrant support.