Hannah Kane, CAIR Coalition’s first social work intern from George Mason University, has been working to expand CAIR Coalition’s outreach work in the communities that are most often impacted by detention and deportation. Fairfax County is home to a large immigrant population, and therefore both students and parents are likely to be personally affected by detention and deportation. School personnel, including parent liaisons and social workers, are in a unique position to provide important information to parents about the detention and deportation system and to assist them in the event that a family member is detained.
In March, Ms. Kane gave a well-received presentation on detention and deportation to seventy parent liaisons in the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) district. Her presentation helped a crucial group of service providers with direct access to immigrant families gain a greater understanding of the experience of detention and deportation, including who can be detained, where they are detained, and how they can be prepared in the face of the possibility of detention and deportation.
Participants came away with a toolset to assist immigrant clients, including how to locate a detainee in the ICE locator system, how families may plan in advance what they intend to do with their assets, and how families can plan to manage child custody and their children’s living arrangements if the parents are detained. The parent liaisons also received information about organizations that are available to help parents in the event of detention.
Robin Hamby, Family Partnerships Specialist at FCPS, attended the presentation and stated: “I feel confident now that I can assist the parent liaisons that I work with to prepare parents and families for a worst case scenario. Knowledge truly is empowering.”
