Commentary: Strafford County jail rallies end, asylum fight goes on
It is quite an accomplishment that a group of concerned citizens continued weekly rallies for detained immigrants at the Strafford County jail in Dover for 26 months with only an occasional cancellation for snow or a major holiday. This continuous show of support may have at times seemed like a small gesture, but waves from the windows encouraged us, and we heard words of affirmation not only from jail and county administrators but from several detained immigrants and released asylum seekers.
Our purpose was wider, however, than this important weekly sign that the people inside matter and are not forgotten. We established regular communication with jail Superintendent Chris Brackett and County Administrator Ray Bower to ensure that safety protocols and personal needs were being met during the COVID-19 lockdown when visitors were not allowed in the jail.
We followed up with Sheriff Mark Brave following a meeting on justice issues in Strafford County where he reported on the dramatic changes at the jail in their relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the change in presidential administrations and effects on the county budget.
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We also educated ourselves about current immigration law by inviting New Hampshire Legal Assistance immigration lawyer Meg Moran to one of our rallies. She spoke of her work representing detained immigrants at Strafford County in removal proceedings and the changes in enforcement rules with the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden presidency.
Our witness has been more than presence and self-education. We also committed ourselves to advocacy and stayed informed of legislative developments in immigrant justice through statewide networks and weekly reports from the American Friends Services Committee-New Hampshire’s State House Watch. This led to writing postcards, emailing, and phoning members of the Biden administration and our members of Congress, attending rallies in Concord, Manchester, Portsmouth and Dover and coordinating with Granite State Organizing Project to participate in September’s Immigrant Solidarity Walk. Finally, we made a difference to detained individuals themselves when we collected money for their commissary fund and collected clothing for a woman who requested it through the Freedom for Immigrants hotline.
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Although we are ceasing our weekly rallies as visitors are now allowed back into the jail, many participants have gotten involved in accompanying several local asylum seekers. We will all miss this weekly community gathering of like-minded folks, but we will continue our advocacy for immigrant justice. There is still important work to be done!
We invite concerned readers to contact our members of Congress to ask that they withdraw their opposition to ending Title 42, a public health measure that was never intended to be a means of immigration control, and that they support all measures to make sure that the internationally respected human right to seek asylum is upheld here in the United States. To maintain a healthy, vibrant economy and our cherished quality of life, we want New Hampshire to be a welcoming state for all.
Debbie Leavitt was the coordinator of the weekly rolling rallies at the Strafford County jail, is a member of the Community Church of Durham’s Immigrant Housing and Accompaniment Team and is involved in many statewide immigrant justice networks.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Strafford County jail rallies end, asylum fight goes on
