Transcript
Speaker: You're listening to the award -winning podcast from Rutgers Law School. The power of attorney. I'm your host and Dean of the Law School, Joanna Bond.
Speaker: Welcome back to Power of Attorney, the podcast from Rutgers Law School. I am guest host David Noll. I'm a professor of law at Rutgers Law School. And today I'm joined by a very special guest, Erin Sweeney, the Managing Director of the RICAP project here at Rutgers.
Speaker: ah Last year, we did an episode of the podcast focused on the RICAP project and the work that it was doing to support immigrant students in the Rutgers community. Since then, Erin has joined the law school, assumed a leadership role in RICAP, And so we thought we would take the opportunity. to chat with her today.
Speaker: about her time at Rutgers, what it's been like representing immigrant students in the current environment and the work that RICAP is doing. So Erin, thanks very much for being with us and welcome to the pod.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me um So why don't we start with the basics? For people who are not familiar with RICAP, can you explain what it is and how it's grown since the project was started at Rutgers Law back in 2017?
Speaker: Sure. Yeah. So RICAP is the Rutgers Immigrant Community Assistance Project. It was started, as you mentioned, in 2017. with just one attorney with the idea that There were many students ah throughout the Rutgers program who needed assistance with their immigration cases. And so since then, we have grown dramatically. So we're now two full -time attorneys. We have a full -time paralegal.
Speaker: We have legal fellows who are law students um who are ah helping us out throughout the school year, each school year. And we take on a huge variety of cases. So we are on all Rutgers campuses, though we physically sit in the law schools in Newark and Camden. We are meeting with students um throughout the university on all campuses.
Speaker: virtually and in person. And our cases have really ranged. I mean, we have everything from international students that have issues with their visas or their SEVIS, which... basically their status, their student status. um They may have other complications. We have students that are applying for asylum.
Speaker: or um are looking for a special immigrant juvenile status, which is a visa for those under 21 who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by a parent.
Speaker: We also have cases such as humanitarian parole programs, such as Ukrainians who are here with ah parole or those with temporary protected status. We even handle marriage cases. You know, if a non -citizen student is marrying a U .S. citizen and needs assistance with those types of cases. So we have a real variety. And then we also have our rapid response cases, which are any emergency cases for students who may find themselves in detention or under ICE enforcement.
Speaker: Hmm. How did you get involved in this work? What was your path to becoming a first an immigration lawyer and then to coming to Rutgers to work at RICAP? Yeah, so my first job actually out of college and grad school was in the US Foreign Service. I was a diplomat for the US government.
Speaker: And I had several tours as a consular officer, which means I was doing visa interviews. ah both for tourists and students as well as immigrant visa interviews helping U .S. citizens abroad.
Speaker: doing a lot of citizen derivation cases where we determine if a child born overseas is a U .S. citizen. and then also doing US passport adjudications both in the US and overseas.
Speaker: um When I returned to the U .S. and left the Foreign Service, i jumped into education nonprofit work. So I was managing different education organizations here in Newark.
Speaker: um But I really missed immigration. And I decided, you know, I should probably become an immigration attorney. So I went to Rutgers Law School at night. just with the purpose to become an immigration attorney. After law school, I was an attorney at Kind, Kids in Need of Defense, where I represented unaccompanied children through humanitarian visas and other...
Speaker: types of humanitarian relief. um So when this position became available here at RICAP this year in January, It seemed like the perfect combination of my experience as a visa officer on the government side of things, as well as my immigration law side.
Speaker: um Plus my general experience running nonprofits. So I was very happy to come. I also, as I mentioned, went to Rutgers Law School, but I also got a master's in American Studies at Rutgers Newark. So I felt like.
Speaker: It was nice to come home to Rutgers. Fantastic. um well let's catch up to current events that the last time we talked the Law school was setting up a rapid response project so that members of the community who were caught up in ICE enforcement proceedings wouldn't have to pace them without the assistance of a lawyer.
Speaker: um A lot has happened. Since then, there's been the surge of immigration enforcement that you see in the newspapers every day. Delaney Hall, located just a few miles from the law school, has reopened.
Speaker: What does a typical week at RICAP look like? these days. Yeah. Well, the best thing about our work is that there is nothing typical here. um Every week is so different. Every day is so different. But I will say, especially during the school year.
Speaker: Our weeks are kind of a combination of different things. We do a lot of presentations. So these are presentations to faculty, staff, and students around knowing your rights and other you know understanding the law and how it how it can be applied.
Speaker: um But in addition, we do external presentations to partners of Rutgers throughout the state. And so a lot of our week. is spent doing presentations, preparing, doing outreach.
Speaker: But we also spend a significant amount of time doing consultations. So our um paralegal will do intakes every week of students who reach out with different immigration issues.
Speaker: We then meet as a team, discuss the intakes, and assign them out for consultations between the two attorneys. And then we will each meet with these individual students to give them our advice on their immigration issue. If we determine that theirs is a case that we could take on for representation. we then sign a retainer with them and bring them on for representation so a lot of our week is also spent on casework, which could be anything from
Speaker: writing motions, submitting forms for ah various forms of relief. preparing affidavits and and briefs. Could be going to court, representing them in immigration court or family court, depending on the proceeding.
Speaker: um And then you add to all of that our rapid response. So one of our our other attorney, Diego, handles our rapid response phone. It is a 24 -7 phone that he keeps with him in case there is any emergency call. And so in any given week, if we get a call on that phone that a student has been detained, we have to jump into action, head over to to meet with the student and try to assist them with their case. So that can really make a week.
Speaker: um very different than what we had planned, depending on how that week goes. For sure. I wonder if we could focus on Delaney a little bit. Many of our listeners will have heard the Delaney name.
Speaker: ah Mayor Ras Baraka's arrest there, the pending charges against Representative McIver, the hunger strike, the escapes. last summer. Um,
Speaker: What is it about Delaney? that makes it different than other detention sites. Why has it been such a focus of... the media and and and legal disputes. Yeah. So I think, you know, in some ways, I think Delaney is probably not that different than a lot of other facilities in other states in the sense of.
Speaker: poor um poor standards when it comes to health, food, um you know general treatment of the detainees. um But I think what made Delaney really get into the headlines was its history, right? So it was a detention facility for a while, then it wasn't a detention facility. When it was a detention facility in the past, it only held, I think, like 400, 500. detainees maximum. The facility itself was really created to be ah like a rehab center for people um leaving.
Speaker: um criminal prisons. And so it was not really designed for to be a detention facility. So the physical structure is really not designed for this purpose. But on top of that, once The state of New Jersey for a while had a prohibition against detention centers when that was. um was
Speaker: um, basically overturned and we had new detention facilities come on board. This particular facility um was reopened last year with very little um involvement of
Speaker: the city of Newark, the state officials. And so there was a lot of concern about how fast this facility was being put back online after it had been basically abandoned for several years, how it was not up to code, and how the city of Newark was not being permit permitted in for permits. So I think that's why you saw so many political... um and you know individuals such as the mayor the congresswoman
Speaker: physically there trying to demand entry even at the beginning days. But they push through, you know, the the government and the geo group that runs this facility. uh pushed through.
Speaker: their reopening of Delaney Hall very quickly.
Speaker: And so it really wasn't structured for the number of detainees that they started holding there, which was double what they had. in the past which is why you saw the escapes last summer right because some of the walls they put up were temporary walls and um it was not ready for for what was um for the number of detainees they brought in so i think that really brought it to the forefront and then I think over the last couple months we've really had um a lot of protests and attention on Delaney because it is just a facility that has a lot of issues with quality of food. type of food, the amount of food, the health access.
Speaker: um attorney access. There's just a ah many, many issues. within the facility. Now, we have another facility here in New Jersey in Elizabeth, the Elizabeth Detention Center, which is... um a much smaller facility and it's been in place for longer um and I have. spent time in both facilities and I can see a
Speaker: a difference between the two in the sense that Elizabeth is a more established facility. It's much more um It's much easier to visit. There's a waiting room. There's bathrooms. There's all of the things that you would hope you would have. Whereas in Delaney, everything is stitched together. you know with um like these these large external buildings that they've kind of put up.
Speaker: quickly and porta potties and things like that to try to address needs. But it is quite a different facility. Now, you mentioned that Delaney isn't even run by DHS. It's run by something called the GEO Group. which is a private contractor that ICE is contracted with. contracted with to run the facility.
Speaker: What is it like representing clients who are detained there. How, you know, how How bad are these conditions? and Maybe I should mention for listeners something that folks may not appreciate is that
Speaker: Immigration detention is justified on the ground that it's a civil form of detention. People who are picked up ah for immigration detention. oftentimes haven't committed any crime they haven't had a trial by jury they haven't had all the protections that you get when you're charged with a crime instead there's this kind of legal fiction that because the government is just in the process of of removing you it can temporarily
Speaker: ah restrict your liberty and and hold you at ah a facility like Delaney. What is that like on the ground as as a lawyer going into one of these facilities? Yeah, I'm really glad you brought up that point because I think People may assume that the individuals who are being held here must be these violent criminals who have done these terrible, awful things and therefore need to... have their liberty restrained in this way.
Speaker: And that's just really not the case. I mean, the the vast, vast majority of the people being held in a place like Delaney or even Elizabeth have no criminal history. They have. absolutely zero. I've represented individuals there who didn't even have parking tickets. I mean, they really had nothing to their name. The only thing that was being essentially used as the justification for their detention was that they may have either entered the United States without a visa many years ago, or they had come on a visa and overstayed the visa. So it was, as you mentioned, it's just a civil infraction.
Speaker: um But the fact that the punishment for the civil infraction is basically... a prison -like environment is pretty astounding, you know, without a day in court, without an opportunity yet to to um explain the situation or or try to get ah liberty from that. um So when we're going to visit these individuals who are stuck in Delaney, I mean, they are
Speaker: um It is like visiting someone in prison. I mean, that you know you're going through multiple layers of security. We can't bring anything into the facility, no phones, nothing electronic, even my car keys. you know Everything is kind of left in the locker.
Speaker: and you are escorted the entire way through you're put into this like ah attorney meeting room where a geo group individual sits outside of the room and can essentially hear what's being said inside um
Speaker: Between the lawyer and their client. Yes, absolutely. I mean, theoretically, they shouldn't be listening. But I mean, they're sitting right there. And even if the door is closed, they can definitely hear what's happening. um If you're lucky, you're speaking in a different language and they don't speak that language. But you also assume that ah somebody is listening somewhere. So we we kind of go with that assumption. um Many attorneys have been recently. discussing in our attorney groups about how even when we do WebEx or um you know virtual meetings with our clients, like there's an assumption somebody is listening. right There's no privacy for attorneys.
Speaker: and um And, you know, i've I've talked to I've had clients on both the male and the female side of the detention facility. The female side is much smaller. um There have been fewer complaints from my female, you know, the female clients I've had, but it's still not great. I mean, the food is...
Speaker: minimal it's often got mold or um you know but at times insects and such that they find in their food. um I remember one of my clients was a really tiny girl. I mean, she was like 4 '9".
Speaker: tiny and she was freezing all the time because it was so cold in the facility. And the only shirts they had were men's large shirts. They would just throw them on her. And um she looked, you know, she was just drowning in these sweatshirts. But they were they were clearly used, um not clean.
Speaker: And so it was really... quite uh... Quite an experience visiting her. You know, on the male side, it's a much larger facility on the male side. So you have different units. This summer, there was a period of time where several of the units went without air conditioning during these heat waves. So it's definitely been.
Speaker: um a difficult environment both for visiting our clients but also just knowing what they're going through.
Speaker: You know, I will just mention that I am grateful that at least when we go to Delaney, there is a team of individuals that work at GeoGroup who are these court officers and they basically are assigned to escort us to meet with our clients um and They have been very... For me, I haven't had a hard time working with them, which has been really nice um because I do hear from other facilities throughout the country, extreme difficulty in getting access. I did have a client transfer to a facility in Louisiana.
Speaker: And I never once was able to speak to him on the phone, video. I would set up all these appointments. It would never go through. And so I think, you know, I am grateful at least that that has worked. But I will say that just because that works doesn't mean it works well. um The hours get reduced. You can sometimes be waiting for a very long time.
Speaker: before you're let in to see your clients. So it's it's definitely challenging. Hmm. Never. I wonder, how does this relate to the work of the university? Because I imagine some people will be listening to this and say,
Speaker: Look, at a public university has No business providing. legal representation to detain students or helping them secure legal representation, you you should be spending our tax dollars on teaching. and on research and on financial aid.
Speaker: What's the connection to Rutgers and what's the connection to the broader work that Rutgers does? Absolutely. So, I mean, RICAP is like any other service on a campus, right? We are... a service specifically to assist students with some
Speaker: issue that's happening in their life that's getting in the way of their studies. and and kind of preventing them from being their full self and and being fully present in their studies. So when I think about the service we provide, it's to me equivalent with, say, the mental health office or the food pantry for emergency food that an individual may need. You know, our role is to help students with this personal issue that's happening that's getting in the way of their ability to focus on their studies and their research. So i I think everyone should be really appreciative and in support of a program like RICAP, just as everyone is probably in support of mental health services and other types of services. Because what we're trying to do here is take some of the best and brightest minds of our state and from around the world who come to Rutgers and are doing...
Speaker: pretty unbelievable research and incredible service to to our community, to science, to health, to all of the different sectors that they work in. And we're just trying to clear the way so that they can focus on those studies and complete their studies successfully.
Speaker: And to me, that's a huge service not only for...
Speaker: Rutgers, but for the state of New Jersey, for our communities and for the country as a whole. and And if we don't provide those services, if we lose these students, we're talking about interrupted research. We're talking about. tons of research money that goes out the window that's been poured into these students and into their research communities. And and we're talking about losing some of the best and brightest minds in the world. And I i mean, I personally... as As someone from New Jersey, um I want them here. I want us to take advantage of of these brilliant.
Speaker: students and all of the work that they're doing and so if if we can help assist them to get through some of the immigration complications that come their way um so they can stay and finish their work, then that that is a real service to our community as a whole.
Speaker: Well, let me give you ah a concrete example. um In 2025, as you know, that there was this wave of visa terminations where people who thought they had a valid student visa. uh suddenly found out that it had been revoked. They didn't receive notice. They didn't receive any due process.
Speaker: How does that affect, say, a graduate student who's working at Rutgers? Um, doing say a STEM degree. And and what's RICAP's role in responding to...
Speaker: really sort of arbitrary, abrupt changes in policy that that we see coming out of DHS. Absolutely. Yeah. So in April 2025, as you mentioned, there was this wave of of terminations of status for international students who were completely in status, had not violated any terms of their visa or their status, yet were terminated without any notice.
Speaker: um and as as was you know discussed on this podcast last year. um You know, we, as well as many other universities and and lawyers throughout the country, were able to step in and basically put pressure on the government who who reactivated their status pretty quickly. Of course, the visas were revoked and that couldn't. be undone, but at least they could stay here in their status and continue their studies.
Speaker: Um, The issue we've seen since then is that Though we've been able to get that first wave of students back in status, they're unable to get new visas. So if they leave the country for any reason, they're having difficulty getting back in. Or if they switch to a work visa called an H -1B visa, they're having difficulty um getting that visa issued to them. So we're seeing some
Speaker: um lingering effects of of this first tranche of terminations still happening. Then you add to that, since then, we've seen waves of more visa revocations that have happened arbitrarily. So individuals, a few months ago, we started getting waves of students um from particular countries who suddenly were getting these emails from their embassies saying,
Speaker: yeah from the U .S. embassy in their country saying, we've revoked your visa. Some information has come to light.
Speaker: We've revoked your visa, to which they their question is, what what information? And what are you talking about? What does that mean? Suppose I'm a biology student and I've been working on ah a research project for five years in a lab. And in and in year four, you get one of these emails. right What does that do to the research? What does that that do to all of the investment that the university has made? and in pursuing this research. Absolutely. I mean, it's it's basically, you know, well, there's one thing I want to clarify here, which is you have what's called your, like, status here in the country as a student, and you have your visa. The visa is a piece of...
Speaker: paper basically a sticker in your passport that allows you to enter and leave the country. But once you've entered the US, s as long as you stay in status up until the date you're permitted to stay in status, like stay in the US s for that. that purpose, even if the visa gets revoked or gets canceled. you're still fine right so these individual students this round in 2026 were still in status and they could still continue their research and study but they couldn't leave the us now
Speaker: That group in last year, in April 2025, they were actually having their status terminated in addition to their visas. So they were in a much different situation. Having said that, I've read this email that individuals this year got from the embassy saying your visa has been revoked. And it's terrifying. It says right in there, like, we're notifying ICE. We're going to let them know that we've revoked your visa. So even though they're still in status, they now have this fear of, like, should I stay? Should I go? So when you're talking about a student um who's in their fourth year of a PhD doing tremendous research, um you're talking about students who, in many cases, make the decision to leave. They're too terrified. They don't want to live with the fear of ICE coming after them. So that's really interesting. Going back to something that you said before, um you know if you look at the White House's Twitter feed or... um the things that the press secretary says the the constant refrain is these are hardened criminals you know uh violent killers gang members rapists uh and so on and so forth
Speaker: Is that who you're representing? Does that reflect the the clients that RICAP is doing this work on behalf of? um because you know From a certain perspective, you can say if people didn't play by the rules, if if people are violating the law, then there's a role for immigration enforcement.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, not at all. So every one of these students that we've been representing was never out of status. They never broke the terms of their visa. They never committed deportable or even inadmissible crimes. There was no reason for any of these revocations of visas or termination of status. So these are people who are trying to follow the law and are doing everything by a book and still their status is being threatened and still they're seeing visa terminations and other actions from DHS. Exactly. And I think you know something else worth adding is what we're seeing is
Speaker: Even right now, they just came out with a new rule last week. USCIS said that's ah what's related to student visas. So in the past, when you would get a student visa to the U .S. and you entered the U .S., you could stay as long as you were in status, as long as you were a student. So say you came as an undergrad and then.
Speaker: You graduated and you got accepted into a PhD program. You could then transfer to the PhD program. And you could just continue to stay on that on that status as long as you needed to to complete your studies, at which point you would either have to leave or or transfer to a different type of visa or a different type of status.
Speaker: um they've just come out with a new rule that's effective this september that basically says now when you enter with a visa you can only stay for up to four years maximum or to the length of your program so for instance if you come in in a phd which are generally more than four years you're only going to be allowed to stay for four years and then when you get close to the end of the four years you're going to have to apply for an extension
Speaker: So you can finish the degree, even though we all know that degree lasts longer than four years. If you come in as an undergrad and you decide, I'm going to go to a master's program, you would have to either leave the country, apply for a new visa, or you would have to apply for some sort of extension or permission from the government to um ah to switch to a new program. You're not allowed under this new rule. You're not going to be allowed to change majors when you're an undergrad. You're not going to be able to change programs. ah You won't be able to transfer schools. so there is there's huge impacts for, again, these are the students that are quote unquote following the rules, right? They're applying, they're coming to this country to study. They're not doing anything out of status. And so what I find is. A lot of our clients, and many of our clients that we're working with now are exactly this. They're theyre individuals who have who've literally done nothing wrong, have been in status the whole time, and now are being kind of...
Speaker: ah um their their status or their future status is being impacted by these policy changes. um You know, another example that came up in May is the USCIS came out with a memo that said that if you're adjusting status in the U .S., you no longer can do that. You have to go back to your home country. So an example would be if you're a student and you fall in love with an American citizen.
Speaker: ah You decide to apply for an adjustment of status in the States, which is a totally legal, normal process. They now are requesting you go back to your home country for that, which could mean years and years of waiting for a visa interview.
Speaker: um When you were never out of status, you never did anything wrong. um They have walked that memo back a little bit because I think they got a lot of pushback and realized that this isn't feasible as well because the Department of State can't handle that influx of visa interviews. But I think this is just an example, again, of how people who are doing everything exactly right by the book.
Speaker: never out of status, are now finding themselves needing assistance from immigration attorneys just to handle. basic processes. Mmm. um All right, we've talked a lot about the harms that ah
Speaker: immigration enforcement can do to the educational mission of Rutgers. But I do want to focus on some of the good ah that RICAP is doing. we know there's research which shows that when somebody is represented uh in immigration proceedings the likelihood of deportation or other consequences um goes down.
Speaker: Can you describe sort of the ripple effects that you see when RICAP is able to successfully intervene on behalf of a student, a faculty member, a member of the community, and ensure that they're able to continue their educational work at Rutgers? So, yeah, so absolutely. So as you mentioned, the um ability for an individual to stay here in status and not get um deported or removed. dramatically increases when somebody has an attorney.
Speaker: On the whole, we have seen that in recent months, there's been more and more pressure put on immigration judges to deny across the board, even for very valid cases. And so that has been a big challenge for many attorneys in trying to figure out how we can represent people when the basic law does not seem to be followed um by the immigration courts. But we are able to appeal and and try to assist individuals as much as we can. Having said that, there are still basic processes that. um individuals are going through, whether it's DACA renewals or these humanitarian opportunities. And so being able to assist a student by helping them with their applications, getting them the work permits they need, um renewing their statuses has been a huge help because you're basically freeing up this individual from having to worry about all this immigration stuff and therefore allowing them to just focus on their education, their work, um their families, everything else that's going on in their life. And I think what you see then.
Speaker: is that these individuals go on to pay it forward. and We've had former RICAP clients who now have status it have citizenship or green cards who have come back to volunteer, trying to find ways to assist other students, getting the word out. That's been really helpful. um You know, and we're talking about individuals who go on to become U .S. citizens, who go on to become, our you know, these people are our neighbors already, right? They're part of our schools. They're part of our communities. So finding ways to get them. even more ingrained and more part of our community, more accepted legally through the immigration process is really, really important for our community as a whole. um You know, just just a few examples. I mean, we're talking about individuals who, DACA renewals, who have been admitted into extremely prestigious clinical programs in various law schools or various PhD or postdoc programs that are extremely prestigious. We're talking about individuals doing research.
Speaker: on things that impact health cancer research. I mean, I've watched News 12 and seen students featured.
Speaker: And I go, oh, OK, you know, because I recognize the individual and I say, oh, this is somebody that we've been able to help. And and look, they're on News 12 talking about how they're in the process of finding a cure or treatment for a particular type of cancer or, um you know, some agriculture research or whatever it is. So it's really incredible. i've I've just met some of the most impressive students I've ever met. And I will say also faculty and staff, though we don't serve them directly.
Speaker: The fact that we're able to assist their students and their researchers has been tremendously helpful in making sure that this research and teaching continues. I mean, there's nothing more disruptive in a class than when you're, you know, the person teaching the class ah gets removed, right, or ends up in ICE enforcement. And, you know, we're trying to get them back there, back in the classroom to assist students. so I think that's been a really big piece of our work.
Speaker: Mm. you know You know, we've talked a lot about the effects of immigration proceedings on students, faculty members, members of the community who are swept up in them. I imagine that just personally doing this work, it must be very difficult. What what have you discovered about taking care of yourself or or making sure that you're able to do the work that that might be of interest to you?
Speaker: podcast listeners. Yeah, I think... I think this is really important. I will say that on a weekly basis, I probably get emails from students like one to two times a week saying, I'm interested in the kind of work you do and like, how do you manage it? And when I talk with students about this kind of work, whether it's immigration law or other types of work, that's very.
Speaker: heavy with things like vicarious trauma or um just the heaviness of the work. You know, I've talked to so many people in the social work school who talk about, you know,
Speaker: I don't know how to have fun on the weekend because I'm on the weekend and all I'm thinking about are my clients and like they're not having fun. And how can I have fun? And I think that one of the most vital things for anyone going into a career that involves a lot of vicarious trauma, a lot of heaviness, a lot of uncertainty, client facing work is to take care of yourself. Right. This is the this is the airplane metaphor. You know, your own oxygen mask before you help someone else. it's We can't assist other.
Speaker: people. We can't represent our clients well if we don't take care of ourselves. um I think one of the best ways I've found to do that is to have toddlers, which I don't really recommend to people because they really take over your life. But when I come home from work, I have two toddlers that are waiting for me and they really don't care what happened at work. um And so that's been a really good way to turn off at the end of the day.
Speaker: But the other thing that I do for myself is um puzzling. I am a competitive speed jigsaw puzzler, and I travel around the country and the world with my sister. doing speed jigsaw puzzles. um It is a great little niche activity. I can completely take my mind off of everything. and dive into a puzzle and it's been really helpful. So I i highly encourage everyone to find that thing, that hobby, that whatever it is that allows you to just unplug.
Speaker: ah Put your phone down. And just enjoy time, whether it's toddlers, which, again, is a very big undertaking and commitment, or if it's puzzling or if it's, you know, whatever it is, walking, running. But you need to have something that allows you to turn off your phones and and just be present with yourself.
Speaker: now i'm Now I'm wondering whether the same skill set that lets you be an effective immigration advocate and navigate everything that's coming out of the federal government is is also at work on the puzzling, the competitive puzzling, because there are some similarities between navigating the immigration system and quickly completing a very ah very large puzzle. Working in immigration law right now is being a puzzle master because every day you're taking the little pieces that are coming out from the government and try to put them together and see how it all fits for your clients. So there is there is overlap, definitely.
Speaker: Well, i I did also want to mention um the work that you're doing for the larger Rutgers community outside of legal representation. And if I understand correctly, a big piece of that is Know Your Rights trainings, making sure that people understand. what the law requires.
Speaker: ah and what they should do to protect their rights. Could you should you talk a little bit about that work, um different parts of Rutgers that you have been involved with, outreach to the broader community?
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's a really big portion of what we do is is education and outreach. So we, during the school year particularly, but even during the summer, we do Know Your Rights presentations that are specifically targeting students who maybe find themselves needing to prepare in case of possible ICE enforcement or understanding what their rights are as immigrants. um And we invite all students to attend those, including U .S. citizens, because it's very important for U .S. citizens to also understand what's happening. and also US citizens who may be
Speaker: at risk of of being confused as an immigrant or someone without a... permanent status like that. so we we do those presentations for student groups, for campuses as requested. um
Speaker: And then we also do presentations really for faculty and staff throughout the Rutgers University system to introduce them to us and the work that we do, but also to discuss ways that they can provide a safer environment for immigrants um and what their rights are. You know, we get lots of questions from faculty members saying, what am I supposed to do if ICE shows up in my classroom? You know, what am I supposed to whistle? Am I supposed to? record am i you know what are my rights and i think
Speaker: I personally think that the training we provide is should be mandatory for all Rutgers faculty and staff. um I think it's really important for faculty and staff to understand what they are supposed to do if they see ice on campus, if something like that happens, both to protect themselves, but also to protect the university and what steps need to be taken. And we just hope that all students. um take our, you know, attend our training. So in the past year, I mean, I've only been here since January. So it's been about half a year we have done.
Speaker: probably about 50, 40 to 50 of these presentations since I've gotten here in January. I know that in the past there's a similar number of presentations per semester. And that's everything from university -wide understanding the law presentations for all faculty and staff virtually to in -person, more in -depth presentations to particular student groups or divisions. I've presented to the entire School of Social Work, um some of the health, Rutgers Health. offices.
Speaker: and um And then what we do on top of that in addition to our presentations within the Rutgers community is we also as we have time and availability make presentations to partner organizations so it could be community colleges we work with it could be right now we're doing a bunch of presentations for the um
Speaker: The system of care, you know, the for for children that are in the system, you know, in the welfare system in the state of New Jersey. So working with different care management organizations and helping giving training through their Rutgers training.
Speaker: ah program program. So it's really a variety that we reach out to, but we reach thousands of people every semester through these presentations. And we encourage any Rutgers unit, group student group, anybody who's looking for this type of presentation to reach out to us so we can see availability. One thing we're also working on, because we're physically present in Newark and Camden, it's sometimes easier for us to have meet with students in person.
Speaker: Though I will fully acknowledge most students like to meet virtually, but we are looking at expanding our drop -in hours in New Brunswick where we'll have set times where we'll be on campus at different sites on campus in New Brunswick so that students can just drop in if they'd like to come in person instead of setting up a virtual appointment. So that should be on tap for the fall.
Speaker: Hmm. Well, Erin, it's really inspiring hearing about your work and hearing about what RICAP is doing. that let me ask you if there's one thing that you wish every member of the Rutgers community faculty Staff.
Speaker: uh what have you could know about RICAP um what would it be ah The number one thing I want them to know is that we exist. Right. And that we're here, that we are a free service, that we are integrated as part of the university. We're university wide. And if you are a faculty or staff member and you have a student who's confided in you something or expresses concern about something related to immigration, um have them.
Speaker: reach out to us you know or send us a note and say hey um you know there's a student could you talk to them right we want people to know that we are here and that we're ready for students um and their families i highly highly encourage they save the rapid response number in their phones as like an easy to find number because you just never know when you might witness a rucker student getting detained or your
Speaker: you know, your student, your family member might get detained. And one thing I just want to clarify for people is, you know, we all know that when you're arrested criminally, you get your one phone call, right? But when you're arrested, when you're arrested through ICE and detained, you don't really get that phone call. You could if you're lucky and somebody lets you use your phone or something, but there's no phone call um in general. So we... need people to tell us if they know that a family member has been detained, if ah if it's ah if it's a Rucker student. So I'll just mention the phone number now, but it's also on our website and encourage people to save this in their phones. It's 973.
Speaker: eight zero three eight zero zero eight and please remember this is just for emergency so this is when a record student has been detained by ice or is being you know, ICE is talking with them. If it's something that's very urgent, like a visa revocation or something like that, they can definitely just email us and we will get back to them usually within 24 hours.
Speaker: Wonderful. Well, in closing, ah Let me ask this. If somebody wants to get involved with RICAP or support your work, if you're a New Jersey lawyer, if you're an alum, What are some concrete steps that they can take? Yes, they should definitely reach out to us. So just head to our website our our website at the Rutgers Law.
Speaker: um website you can find RyCaf there and just um Reach out to us, let us know how you want to help. I mean, we have we maintain a list of private attorneys who are immigration attorneys to assist students with bigger or different types of immigration issues that perhaps we are not able to take on. Maybe they're particularly complicated visa related questions or things beyond the scope of the work that we're able to do. um
Speaker: Reach out to us if you're an attorney who is a private immigration attorney and might be interested in being on that list. We'd love to have attorneys who are willing to give free... um consultations to students and and low bono representation or even pro bono representation to record students if you were a type of an attorney that's not immigration but you might be something um that could be of use to our students we'd love your information as well because we always have students come to us with other types of questions and it would be great to be able to to send them somewhere
Speaker: um And if you're just a concerned citizen, ah a family member, whoever you might be, reach out to us and there might be ways that you could support our students. um or help us with other activities that are going on with within our campus.
Speaker: Well, Erin Sweeney, managing attorney of RICAP here at Rutgers Law School, thank you so much for being with us on The Power of Attorney. We look forward to learning all about what your project does in the in the years ahead.
Speaker: Great. Thank you so much. It it was a pleasure to be here. The Power of Attorney is a production of Rutgers Law School. with two locations just minutes from New York City and Philadelphia.
Speaker: Rutgers Law offers the prestige and reputation of a large, nationally known university with a personal, small campus experience. Learn more by visiting us at law dot rutgers dot
