One of Grassroots Leadership’s core strategies is accompanying impacted community members through the immigration and criminal legal systems. The U.S. immigration system is hostile. It turns human beings into “A numbers,” considers their existence to be “illegal,” and requires them to relive past trauma in order to fit within a narrow legal category to obtain a favorable decision.

That is why Grassroots Leadership believes that solidarity means showing up and walking alongside community members. With their weekly Court Watch program, a team of volunteers and staff accompanies Grassroots Leadership members to criminal and civil court. Grassroots Leadership provides basic training to volunteers to prepare them to serve as court observers. Volunteers learn key elements of the immigration process and crimmigration––how the criminal system affects the immigration system, and vice versa. Through Court Watch, Grassroots Leadership seeks to hold judges and attorneys accountable. Volunteers monitor individual cases: they document wait times and community members’ interactions with government officials including judges, as well as with individual counsel. Grassroots Leadership also recruits volunteers to visit people detained in immigration facilities in the greater Austin area. Spanish speaking volunteers visit people who have recently arrived as well as those who have been detained for many months.

OCAD coordinates accompaniments at their asambleas. Asambleas provide a space for those affected by deportation to discuss the injustices present in the immigration and criminal justice system and organize for change. The accompaniments are organized through social media, phone calls, and contact with their volunteer listserv. As OCAD Co-Founder and Strategic Coordinator and community organizer Antonio Gutierrez explained, “Accompaniment is meant to get away from the model of service delivery and to really create a sense of support and community.”

Accompaniers receive training on court observation, including a discussion on the goals of the program and practical tips to consider when entering immigration court. Accompaniment strives to build community and monitor the injustice within the immigration system. For example, OCAD recognizes that the legal code is complicated and convoluted, and the stunning lack of uniformity in the way in which it is applied to individual cases means that decisions are often arbitrary. “In essence, we’re doing death penalty cases in a traffic court setting,” said Immigration Court Judge Dana Leigh Marks. 

​​NSC viewed accompaniment as a way to extend sanctuary into the halls of the immigration system. The program grew tremendously since 2016, with an average of 80+ accompaniments a week across New York City and the surrounding areas. NSC recruited and trained volunteers to accompany people facing deportation and those affirmatively asserting their right to remain. 

Accompaniment training covered the historical and political context of the immigration system, NSC core principles, and strategies for allyship. After training, volunteers could sign up via a newsletter sent multiple times per week to accompany a Friend––an immigrant who seeks services at NSC––to ICE check-ins, immigration court, and for support outside the immigration system, for example a job interview or a doctor’s visit. Each accompaniment was led by an Accompaniment Leader, an experienced volunteer who coordinated the team of volunteers. Volunteers with Spanish and other language fluency as well as NSC staff served as points of contact with Friends.