Amid unfolding crackdown, Utah advocates launch effort to aid immigrants headed to court

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Utah immigrant advocates are launching an initiative to support immigrants fearful of deportation at criminal and immigration court hearings.
Parallel goals are to help immigrants with emergency preparedness in the event they face deportation and offer emotional and social support.
The effort comes amid the unfolding federal crackdown focused on detaining and deporting immigrants in the country illegally.

SALT LAKE CITY — As nerves fray among some in Utah's immigrant community, advocates for the population are launching an initiative to aid and support immigrants fearful of deportation when attending routine court hearings.

"We'll support people going both to their criminal or immigration hearings or check-ins, but the priority right now is supporting immigrants who are being targeted by ICE at their court hearings," said Liz Maryon. She's helping create and lead the court support program for the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund, the organization spearheading the initiative in cooperation with many other Utah organizations.

Maryon participated in the Dec. 8 protest outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Salt Lake City, meant as a show of support for immigrants amid jitters about the specter of increased arrests of those with business inside the facility. Immigrants trying to normalize their migratory status go to the facility for routine appointments, and Maryon would monitor who entered and exited during the demonstration to document possible arrests inside by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. She reported no detentions that day, though worries about such arrests are behind the new effort.

While monitoring on Dec. 8 will be one element of the court support program, Maryon envisions more. Volunteers taking part will attend hearings in criminal and immigration court with those who want it, as allowed at the varied facilities, help immigrants with emergency preparedness in the event they face deportation and educate immigrants on their rights. They'll also offer emotional and social support.

"I think the main goal is to make it clear that Utah supports immigrants and that we ... want ICE out of Utah," she said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she charged, "is a racist, unjust system that is being utilized to criminalize and target immigrants."

The uptick in immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump has prompted sharp criticism from many immigrant advocates. While agency reps didn't immediately respond to a KSL.com query on Friday seeking a reaction to the sort of criticism put forward by Maryon, the organization defends itself on its social media platforms. Trump and other backers of the immigration crackdown say those in the country illegally are draining the country's public resources and that many of them are criminals and pose a public safety threat.

"There is nothing unlawful about ICE upholding and enforcing federal immigration law," Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday in a social media post in response to separate criticism from U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, that the group is "unlawful." "The men and women defending the homeland are defending your constituents from criminal illegal alien murderers, rapists, gang members, drug dealers and more."

As immigration enforcement activity has increased, attacks on immigration agents have gone up by 1,150%, the agency said, calling for an end to "the violent rhetoric" it faces.

'To document, to provide support'

To be sure, Salt Lake Bail Fund promotional material for the court support initiative is very critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Court support will allow us to continue to build the mass movement to protect our communities against ICE and police terror!" reads a social media post about the plans.

But Maryon said the efforts won't entail physically interceding or interrupting immigration enforcement actions. The Salt Lake Bail Fund's principal focus is against the "unjust money bail system" in the U.S. court system that the group believes disproportionately impacts lower-income people and people of color.

"We are there to document, to provide support. We are not advocating for any illegal actions," Maryon said. Those taking part in the effort will be instructed that their role isn't "to prevent or obstruct detainments but to document, spread awareness, provide support."

Other groups supporting the effort include the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, Black Lives Matter in Utah, the Utah Immigrant Advocacy Coalition and Comunidades Unidas.

The initial training session for those interested in serving as volunteers for the court support program was held Dec. 13, and Maryon thinks interest is strong in making it work. "We are confident in our ability to start offering at least a few shifts in the coming weeks, and then we'll kind of see how often those volunteers are able to come. We'll definitely want to continue expanding so that we can offer more shifts and maintain the program," she said.

Immigrants have already started reaching out, seeking more information about the effort, Maryon said. Volunteers might attend immigration or court hearings with those who request it or might show up at locations where immigrants have hearings and appointments to serve as watchdogs.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.