At the intersection of immigration and criminal justice, the Capitol Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (CAIR Coalition) has situated itself as the organization tackling immigrant detention centers. Specifically, CAIR Coalition is the only non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area focused on immigrants in jails and juvenile facilities who have been detained by the government in the DMV area. The work CAIR Coalition does is even more important when considering that 70% of people who are immigrants in the U.S. are held in privately-run immigrant prisons, and the profit these institutions make can be around $184 million—the amount GEO group received in 2017 (Freedom for Immigrants).
To assist adults and children who get detained, CAIR Coalition’s services focus on legal representation, social services, and working on impact litigation to make policy changes and target the system. This organization conducts visits to detention centers and jails, working within their Detained Adult Program and their Detained Unaccompanied Children’s program. Education on legal services and rights is a hallmark of this organization, and the focus on their Legal Orientation Program provides recently detained unrepresented immigrants with knowledge of their rights and the court processes. Moreover, they emphasize providing trauma-sensitive services that respect the autonomy and agency of immigrants.
Immigration remains an important topic within politics, and the time that immigrants spend in detention centers was found to increase under Trump’s administration; as compared to 22 days in 2016, the average length of stay in detainment centers reached 34 days in 2017 (Freedom for Immigrants). Thus, CAIR Coalition is looking for assistance from college students in both the form of internship and volunteer opportunities. The three main volunteer opportunity types include joining a day-long jail visit, translation and interpretation assistance, and staffing the hotline. For now, all in-person jail visits and training for them are on hold in light of the COVID-19 pandemic—however, CAIR Coalition will be updating volunteers when they resume these visits and determine that it is safe to continue with the program. When this program restarts, the visits focus on detention facilities in Virginia and Maryland to provide general information about the detention process and how to legally fight deportation.
Translation and interpretation assistance requires volunteers to translate court documents for CAIR Coalition clients, and they also are seeking assistance with live interpretation for staff and pro bono attorneys. For translation services, they are seeking speakers of all languages who have strong fluency, but training or certification is not required. Translations and some interpretations can be completed remotely or in person on a weekly basis. Hotline staffing is also being completed remotely in two-hour shifts until CAIR Coalition determines it is safe to return to the office. Training is required for this position as volunteers connect callers with staff in the office to help access legal services, send follow-up messages about cases, conduct intakes, and provide information on upcoming jail visits. Spanish fluency, however, is not required. As for undergraduate unpaid internship opportunities, CAIR Coalition is hiring spring semester interns for the positions of Direct Representation for the Detained Adult Program, assistance with the Pro Bono Coordinating Team, and working on the Communications and Development team. The application deadline is November 18th.
This topic has only become more and more important in the passing years, and CAIR Coalition is seeking more volunteers as they fight against deportation in the U.S. If you are interested in getting involved with CAIR Coalition, sign up for volunteering at this link and apply for internships using this link to work with the only non-profit organization here in D.C. working specifically with immigrants who are detained.
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