People who see immigration officers knocking at their doors — or their neighbors’ — in San Diego County can now call a new 24-hour hotline for .
The hotline is part of the San Diego Rapid Response Network, which sends trained volunteers to reported immigration enforcement activity across the county to document officers’ behavior, gather information for legal screenings and offer resources to family . The network is activists’ answer to increased immigration arrests under President Donald Trump.
More than 150 volunteers have received training so far.
“First and foremost, I think that it’s a statement about values, it’s a statement about what matters in our community,” said Alor Calderon, director of the Employee Rights Center, one of the organizations involved. “Our values are about growing together and being inclusive.”
When Trump ramped up immigration enforcement after he took office, San Diego activists from faith-based organizations, civil rights organizations and labor organizations started looking for ways to protect and the county’s immigrant communities.
Cities like San Francisco and Indianapolis started rapid response programs, often through faith-based groups. During research and planning for the San Diego network, organizers said they took best practices from other cities’ efforts.
In the final years of the Obama istration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities focused on people who were convicted of felonies or certain misdemeanors. Since Trump signed executive orders in January that expanded priorities for ICE, arrests and deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. rose significantly.
ICE officers arrested 143,470 people in fiscal 2017, a 30 percent increase from the year before. ICE deported 61,094 people from such arrests, up 37 percent.
Many Trump ers have welcomed increased enforcement as a promise fulfilled, and heads of the federal agencies involved celebrated what they see as progress. For many immigrant rights activists, that increase is a crisis.
“We all know that if any of us lost a member of the family, it’s an emergency,” Calderon said.
Calling the hotline probably won’t stop an arrest that’s already in progress, but it might help stop a deportation, depending on the details of the case.
Anyone wanting to report an immigration arrest, a checkpoint or a raid to the rapid response network can call 619-536-0823. Dispatchers, who must be bilingual in English and Spanish, will take down information from the caller about the enforcement’s location and send a text to volunteer responders, asking for someone to what’s happening.
A responder will go to the address provided and document the situation. Responders are taught not to obstruct an arrest in any way. Instead, they observe and document in case the immigrant’s civil rights are violated.
Responders must be U.S. citizens, Calderon said, and don’t have to be bilingual.
The responder also gathers information to send the case to a team of lawyers. The legal team screens cases for those they might be able to help. Others get referrals to free or low-cost attorneys.
Getting more access to attorneys has been an issue in immigration court for years. Unlike criminal court, immigrants do not have a right to an attorney, meaning that many go through the court system without representation.
Studies have shown that having an attorney can have a significant impact on whether immigrants win their cases.
The rapid response network also recommends resources at various organizations throughout the county based on individual needs.
Kate Clark, a member of the network’s legal team from Jewish Family Service, said that as an immigration attorney, she’s given “Know Your Rights” workshops for years but that this is different.
“Giving out the names of organizations locally that can assist with immigration cases just didn’t feel like enough. I felt like we really needed to have this coordinated effort,” Clark said. “For me it’s really being able to be committed to immigrant community through and through.”
After the hotline is fully implemented, the next step is to incorporate a way to alert those in immigrant communities about enforcement activity in their neighborhoods, Clark said.
“I feel like there’s been a lot of calls to action, and this is really the action piece, which is exciting to be a part of,” Clark said. “We’re actually doing something that is going to make a difference in the lives of these families.”
The hotline has been operational for about a week as part of a soft-launch. While it has received calls, they haven’t yet been from people in crisis, Clark said.
The network celebrated its official kick-off Tuesday evening at Saint Jude Shrine of the West, a Catholic church in the community of Southcrest.
The Employee Rights Center is hosting a dispatcher training at 5 p.m. on Friday.
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