The new PODER Virginia campaign is looking for immigrants, their families and allies to call in with stories in order to paint a more complete picture of deportation activity to possibly identify patterns.
Activists hope it will gather data to provide a clear picture of ICE operations and patterns of arrest.
ICE arrests and deportation activity have steadily ramped up since President Donald Trump took office. In Virginia, there have been street arrests and home arrests, arrests at immigration courts and arrests at courthouses.
“Although we see these things, we don’t have a way to be tracking them specifically, so the idea of this hotline is to be able to collect this information for Virginia as a state to understand, really, what it is on the ground and be able to show all of our communities what is happening,” said Samantha Zaboli with the Centreville Immigration Forum.
Zaboli joined other immigrant advocates to announce the new hotline, 844-ALERT-VA. The campaign has a new name, too: PODER Virginia. PODER stands for Protect, Organize, Defend, Educate, Resist.
Unlike hotlines rolled out right after Trump’s inauguration, this one can be used across the commonwealth.
“Law enforcement can say one thing. We want to really ensure what’s going on here in the commonwealth,” said John Cano of the Legal Aid Justice Center.
ICE posts arrest photos daily on social media and supplies regular deportation numbers. The new PODER Virginia campaign is looking for immigrants, their families and allies to call in with stories in order to paint a more complete picture of deportation activity to possibly identify patterns.
“Many wonderful partners and allies are doing court watching and all of the other things that they’re doing; however, that is one piece of the puzzle. So what we’re trying to do is show the entire puzzle so that we can have accountability campaigns, advocacy campaigns and really know what the story is here in Virginia,” Zaboli said.
While the hotline is a tool for immigrants’ rights groups to gather information, those staffing the line will also be able to answer questions for immigrants if they call in needing help.
The hotline, now up and running, will take calls from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The previous hotline, which launched in January, is now deactivated.
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