[View here as a Twitter thread]
I spent this past week volunteering for RAICES at a detention center south of San Antonio Texas. @RAICESTEXAS This thread is for people who want to know how they can help. Here’s some information on the program and the clients:
The work is in Spanish, so they need translators. You don’t have to know any legalese in Spanish. I think “asylum” is about as technical as your Spanish needs to be because concepts are broken down into conversational Spanish for the clients.
If you’re a non-Spanish speaking “lawyer,” you need to find your own translator. Feel free to use the comments to this thread to find each other. You’ll work closely all week. Lawyer+translator becomes a team, so make sure you’re compatible.
One pair of volunteers this week (lawyer + translator) financed their trip to Texas through a GoFundMe page. If you’re a lawyer who cannot travel, they may have work you can do remotely—research, writing, etc. They take donations & always need money. They have internships.
There’s a weekly cycle: Training on Sunday, work at the detention center Mon-Thurs or Fri, then finish up at the office in San Antonio. A new batch of volunteers the next week. Once you’re trained, it’s easier to come back and jump in. Please retweet so people know how to help.
I was honored to work with the women in the detention center. It takes so much grit & gumption to pack a bag & journey with a child (or children) to a new country whose people speak a language you don’t understand. Women like those are the kind who, you know, make America great.
