A student group at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School held a letter writing event in support of detained immigrants on Tuesday.
The April 7 event was hosted by the Immigration and Asylum Law Club in collaboration with Juntos, a Philadelphia-based immigrant rights organization. At the gathering, nearly 20 Penn Carey Law faculty and students wrote letters to immigrants who are currently detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
IALC president Mahera Muquith, a second-year student at Penn Carey Law, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the event was “a perfect way” to demonstrate “support and solidarity” for detained immigrants.
“We obviously can't imagine what it means or how it feels to be detained — but it’s a very isolating and dehumanizing experience,” Muquith added. “This is not to say that letter writing fixes all of that injustice, but it's just a little bit of humanity that we can offer to show that we support them, we care for them, we remember them, and we are in solidarity with them.”
Lenore Ramos, a community defense organizer at Juntos, led a presentation before the letter writing commenced. During her speech, Ramos explained that the goal was to have attendees send words of “encouragement” to immigrants currently in the processing center.
She added that the Moshannon Valley Processing Center sets guidelines for what is allowed to be included in letters sent to detainees. Specifically, facility requires that letters are written in black ink with no drawings, and does not allow any physical objects to be included.
Muquith explained that IALC wanted to collaborate with Juntos, which had previously hosted letter writing events, after discovering their mission to help immigrants in Philadelphia.
Nabila Prasetiawan, a first-year student at Penn Carey Law and an event attendee, told the DP that it is “really sad" to see “what’s going on in the immigration system.”
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She added that it is “really important" for students to do anything that shows that they “do not support what's going on.”
Leslie Deiss, a first-year student at Penn Carey Law, added that the event was a “powerful way” for people “to still show support” regardless of their expertise in immigration law.
“Not all of the Penn environment — but a lot of the Penn environment — is a little bit more right-leaning and that can mean it's harder to speak up against the injustices that immigrants face for fear that people won't support you,” Deiss added.
Ramos told the DP that the goal of the event was “to show up for the community” in whatever way it needs.
“The goal is to fight for our rights until they're respected,” she added.
