Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network serves as an ‘ally’ for community

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With increased immigration law enforcement activity in 2017, the Workers Center of Central New York and the Syracuse Peace Council held a community-wide meeting — an initiative to understand how they could support Syracuse’s immigrant and refugee community.

From that meeting, attendees created a group dedicated to responding to community members’ urgent legal immigration matters.

“There was a sense in the community or an expectation that for certain populations, there would be a tough road ahead,” said Jessica Maxwell, executive director of the WCCNY. “Particularly for immigrants, there was a concern there would be a crackdown.”

Now known as the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network, the volunteer-led organization works for immigration justice, and is a project of WCCNY, an organization focused on economic and workplace justice. Members of SIRDN, who refer to themselves as allies, aim to support low-income immigrants and refugees in the city of Syracuse and throughout central New York through advocacy work and mutual aid.

“Supporting the work that is driven by what the (immigrant and refugee members) actually say they want and need … that’s sort of the underlying focus,” said Annegret Schubert, a SIRDN volunteer. “We don’t want to do things that they don’t want us to do.”

The group specifically seeks to aid people who have applied for, are awaiting or have been denied asylum or immigrant status as well as those who do not have the documentation to do so, Schubert said. SIRDN first began as the Rapid Response Network in 2017, a response to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Schubert said.

SIRDN soon became informally affiliated with the WCCNY — a relationship which made sense, Maxwell said, because a large portion of the WCCNY’s members are immigrants. With the organization also often dealing with immigration issues, she said, having SIRDN available as a resource for members allowed WCCNY to maintain its focus on handling labor issues.

Maxwell, who was formerly a SIRDN volunteer, said the now-formalized partnership has been beneficial for both groups, who often work with one another in various ways. Schubert said the WCCNY holds SIRDN’s money and refers its members to SIRDN. SIRDN members handle those referrals, use WCCNY’s office space and help out with tabling and fundraising events, among other things. Schubert said many community members that SIRDN works with are referred from the WCCNY.

“It really helps us expand our capacity. We know it’s a need for our members. … The important thing for us is that there’s a way for our members to have that need met,” Maxwell said. “In some ways, having (SIRDN) within the organization allows us to be a little bit more informed about what’s going on (in the community).”

SIRDN volunteers provide direct support to the community in the form of food, funds or transportation. This often includes providing transportation to court, medical or DMV appointments and assisting with other emergencies that may arise. Schubert said SIRDN also conducts food deliveries, a service that reaches community members from as far as Auburn and Fulton, which are about 40 and 30 minutes away from Syracuse, respectively.

Karen, who wished to not publicly share her last name for safety reasons, has been working with SIRDN since she came to Syracuse from Mexico in 2019. She said the group has supported her, her husband and her two daughters in various ways.

SIRDN provided transportation to Buffalo when Karen needed to appear in court for her asylum case, as well as helped pay her family’s rent during a time of financial struggle. Schubert also delivers boxes of food for her family every month and helped her find a job, Karen said.

Some of SIRDN’s advocacy work includes organizing political campaigns, tabling and hosting informational workshops for community members. Emily Estrada, a SIRDN volunteer and assistant professor in SUNY Oswego’s sociology department, is known among volunteers for “specializing” in this line of work.

Schubert — who is the “driving force” of the group, Estrada said — said at times, the group’s flexible schedule and differing levels of commitment among volunteers can be “frustrating.” She said she hopes to continue expanding the line of active volunteers.

Because SIRDN is “very grassroots,” Estrada said, volunteers don’t hold official titles or hierarchical roles. They tend to offer support depending on the organization’s needs, their own skill sets and their capacity to meet those needs at a given time. For instance, Estrada regularly works as a meeting and workshop facilitator, as well as a point person for political campaigns.

More recently, Estrada organized and hosted a “Know Your Rights” workshop in partnership with the New York Immigrant Coalition on Zoom on Mar. 13, which had two Spanish interpreters. SIRDN largely works with Hispanic communities, Schubert said, and tries to be considerate of language barriers. Non-Spanish speaking members often use Google Translate to communicate with Spanish speakers, but use the help of translators and interpreters when they are available.

“Interpreters are like precious little gem diamonds to our group,” Estrada said. “We really strive to practice linguistic inclusivity, which is so important given the community that we’re hoping to serve, that we ally with.”

Volunteers can propose a new project or request to take on a certain duty during general meetings, Estrada said, which are held on Zoom twice a month.

Though “it’s been a while” since she attended a general meeting, Karen said the meetings tend to be very informative and helpful. She said she was able to receive COVID-19 relief after attending a general meeting where volunteers guided members on filling out the paperwork.

Even when the information does not apply to her family’s living or immigration situation, she considers it important to learn in case she might have to inform someone else.

“Every time I do go, the information is always new. It might not be useful at first, but over time you realize that it was really valuable,” she originally said in Spanish.

Melinda Wells-Reynolds, a volunteer who has been with the organization since its inception, said SIRDN’s main goal is to empower the community rather than having community members be dependent on its allies. She said building or maintaining personal relationships with members outside of the organization can be a “slippery slope.”

“There’s a process when you’re doing volunteer work when you have to figure out what’s about other people and what’s about you,” Wells-Reynolds said. “If you can’t maintain or develop the relationship, then you really need to be careful to not get into it in the first place. You just have to be careful, you know, respectful.”

Karen said she has known Schubert for “three or four years.” Schubert, SIRDN and the WCCNY have always been willing to support her, Karen said, and she knows they are available resources to her if anything were to happen regarding her asylum case, which is currently closed.

Karen said most people in her hometown in Mexico aren’t very trusting of others who claim to want to help in cases like hers. She was initially — and still can be — hesitant of trusting others herself, but seeing that members of the Hispanic community were willing to put their trust in the organization was reassuring.

“For me, SIRDN has been a great ally. They’ve helped (my family and I) when we haven’t been doing well, and I know they’ve helped a lot of other people,” she originally said in Spanish. “I know that not everyone is willing to do what they do. What every single person involved in SIRDN does is very courageous and valuable.”