In response to recent federal immigration enforcement across Rhode Island, student labor organizers are joining local activists in efforts aimed at protecting community members from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions across the state, and more specifically, on College Hill.
The RIFT-AFT Local 6516 — which represents unionized student workers and postdocs at Brown — plans to launch a “walking chaperone” program that trains student volunteers to “escort noncitizens as needed between campus locations and nearby sites,” the union wrote in a Nov. 10 Instagram post.
According to Victoria Antonetti GS, the vice president of Local 6516, the organization’s chaperone program was “inspired by the work of the Deportation Defense Line” — a hotline run by members of the Deportation Defense Network of R.I.
The network is composed of several local organizations, including Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and the Party for Socialism and Liberation R.I.
Union leaders intend for the chaperone program to “fight against” ICE activity within the Brown community, said Maya Lehrer MAT’23, an organizer with the Deportation Defense Network.
EJ Toppin GS, the Graduate Labor Organization’s chair for social justice and accountability, told The Herald the organization plans to resume chaperone volunteer training sessions early next semester. “We are trying to get the word out,” he said.
Provided they recruit enough volunteers, the union plans to operate the chaperone program on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., he said.
Local 6516 Chair of Communications Adit Sabnis GS said that the organization “can’t prevent ICE from coming here,” but still hopes to make graduate student employees “less scared to go about their daily lives.” A large share of graduate workers, he noted, are not U.S. citizens.
Organizers began planning the chaperone program last year and saw “decent turnout” at training sessions, Toppins said. But after union members “dispersed over the summer,” turnout has been waning, he added.
In addition to the chaperone program, union members have also begun working with the Deportation Defense Network, Lehrer said. The network’s volunteer staff operate a handful of “neighborhood groups” across the Greater Providence area which patrol outside courthouses, The Herald previously reported.
The network’s courthouse outreach initiative came as a response to growing federal immigration enforcement operations near Rhode Island courts, Lehrer said. Volunteers with the initiative patrol near Providence courthouses, keeping an eye out for ICE presence.
The initiative “is designed to alert people” to possible ICE presence and to provide the number for the Defense Hotline to “people who are going into or out of the courts,” she explained.
Along with the Defense Network, union organizers have hosted a series of “regular organizing meetings,” where attendees are trained “how to do outreach” and “how to spot ICE,” Lehrer said. She estimated that over the course of the semester, 200 people have participated in training sessions across Providence.
On Nov. 20, ICE activity was identified by volunteers near the Rhode Island Superior Courthouse on College Hill.
“We had volunteers on the ground warning people coming in and out” of the courthouse, as well as “people on bikes and cars patrolling,” Yosan Alemu GS, a GLO steward, wrote in a message to The Herald.
Alemu added that ICE vehicles were parked near the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, spurring a demonstration outside the Superior Court.
ICE’s Boston field office did not respond to a request for comment.
Emily Feil is a university news and metro editor covering staff & student labor and RISD. She is from Long Beach, NY and plans to concentrate in English and international & public affairs. In her free time, she can be found watching bad TV and reading good books.
Michelle Bi is a metro editor covering City Hall & Crime and State Politics & Justice. She is a sophomore from Oak Park, CA and studies English and IAPA. In her free time, you can find her playing guitar, the LA Times crossword or one of her 115 Spotify playlists.
