Before Natalie is introduced by Dr. Grace Gámez,
program coordinator for Reframing Justice
for the American Friends Service Committee,
we're continuing our spotlight on local and regional
non-for-profit organizations and artists working to advance
issues related to carceral justice.
So tonight we're very excited to hear from Leah Bishop who
is the community engagement coordinator of the Florence
Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project
and you may have seen the tabling outside.
That's so that once you hear a little bit more
about what they do, if you want to support and become more
engaged in the work that they do.
And there will also be, along with Leah
will be Nadia Comaduran, who will
share about how the Florence project has supported her.
I want to invite them up now.
And they'll be here for about 15 minutes
to tell us a little bit more about their work.
And then Grace will come up and introduce Natalie.
Thank you so much for being here.
[APPLAUSE]
Hi, everyone.
Thank you so much for being here.
My name is Leah Bishop.
I am the community engagement coordinator
for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
And we are a nonprofit that provides
free legal and social services to folks in immigrant detention
here in Arizona.
And before I talk a little bit about our work,
I want to say a huge thank you to the U of A Poetry
Center for letting us be a part of this event.
Thank you Patri and Diana for working with me and for letting
us be a part of this.
And then, of course, a huge thank you
to Natalie Diaz for using your platform
to let us share a little bit about a huge issue going on
in our community.
I am particularly excited to be a part
of the Art for Justice Project that
focuses on mass incarceration.
Because our clients represent a group of incarcerated folks
who oftentimes don't quite make it into the conversation.
And that is immigrants who are detained
for the simple act of existing in the United States
without the correct papers.
On any given day there are over 5,000 individuals
incarcerated in detention facilities
in the state of Arizona.
And no matter how they ended up in those facilities,
whether they have lived in the United States for a long time,
whether they came fleeing domestic violence, gang
violence, persecution for their gender identity
or sexual orientation, whether they came seeking safety,
mental health care, or food to put on the table,
they all have one thing in common.
And that is that they have open deportation
proceedings against them.
And though they are not in criminal proceedings,
they are housed in facilities that are identical to
and oftentimes run by private prisons.
And the immigration system differs
from the criminal system in a number of ways.
The way that most directly affects a lot of our clients
is that immigrants in the immigrant justice system
are not guaranteed the right to free representation.
This means that in Arizona about 90% to 95%
of people who are detained, those
who aren't able to pay for a private attorney,
will end up going unrepresented.
Though they don't have defense, there
is a seasoned government prosecutor
who will go against them in front of an immigration
judge, whose subjective opinion will determine whether or not
they are returned to the conditions
that they came fleeing.
For some of our clients deportation
amounts to nothing less than a death sentence.
So the Florence Project has existed for 30 years trying
to address this injustice.
Our organization is the only organization in Arizona
that provides free legal and social services to folks
in immigrant detention.
And since there are about 5,000 individuals who
need representation and just a few dozen attorneys on staff,
we operate primarily on a pro se empowerment model,
which means that we give people the tools and information they
need to navigate this incredibly complex system.
Little by little, we are working towards our goal
of universal representation.
So we're now able to represent all children who
are detained or formally detained
and fighting their cases in the state of Arizona.
We also represent all individuals
with severe mental health issues.
And we try to connect as many asylum seekers
to attorneys as possible.
And finally, we recognize that a lot of our clients
have suffered some form of severe trauma,
whether that was the trauma that caused
them to leave their country of origin,
whether it happened to them in the journey,
or whether it was the trauma of being detained itself.
It can make it difficult for them
to navigate the detention system,
as well as thrive once they're released.
And so we have a team of incredible social workers
who provide holistic services to support them
in that whole process.
So I could go on and on about our work.
And I promise that I will.
I have a ton of business cards up at that table over there.
So if you want to have a one on one conversation with me
about the Florence Project and about the immigration
legal system, I would love to do that.
But I feel incredibly lucky that we actually
have one of our clients here with us tonight, Nadia,
who is going to speak about her experience.
And Nadia is one of our few clients who was never detained.
She came to us at a time when we had
limited funding to represent children
in the Tucson community.
But her story really strikes me, because she
can speak to how a lack of status
itself can create a type of prison, limiting access
to resources, limiting mobility, limiting your ability
to be a normal kid.
So thank you so much, Nadia.
And I will let you take over.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Do you want these?
Thanks.
Hi.
Hello, good evening.
My name is Nadia Comaduran.
I'm currently 18 years old, and I live in Nogales, Arizona.
So pretty much I'm just going to tell you my life story.
So in 2000 of June, my mother gave birth to me.
She was actually in the US when her water broke.
And she crossed to Mexico to give birth to me.
Why?
I don't know.
But that's what she wanted I guess.
So I resided in Mexico up until I was five years old.
And then that's when my parents decided
to move to Nogales, Arizona in order for me to go to school.
I attended school in Nogales from kindergarten
up until I graduated from high school.
And when I was in elementary school
my father actually attempted to obtain my US citizenship
by applying with his own citizenship.
And in the process of this he passed away.
And one month later after his death
is when his approval for his residency had arrived,
but unfortunately it was too late.
Two years later, my mother passed away.
So this led to my grandparents having
to take guardianship of me and my little sister.
In high school is when I really started
to realize how much being an immigrant really
affected my life.
I was really excluded in things, such as
like being able to join sports or clubs,
because they would ask for some type of legal documentation.
So I couldn't really do any other activities
but go to school.
I was also really excluded from activities that my peers would
do, such as like cross the border to Mexico to go eat
or to go celebrate.
And not only did it affect me with my friends,
but with my family as well, due to them being mixed
nationalities.
Like my grandparents were US citizens,
and my little sister was a US citizen.
So it really like bummed me out when
they would go on family trips, and I
would have to stay behind due to me being undocumented.
So yeah, I couldn't leave Nogales
whatsoever due to like the border patrol checkpoints
and stuff.
So I was pretty much stuck in like a very, very small city
from the age of 5 to 17.
And December of 2016 is when I was put in contact
with an attorney from the Florence Immigrant and Refugee
Rights Project.
And at first we struggled a bit to acquire guardianship of me
for my grandparents due to the judge saying that it wasn't
allowed for a US citizen to take guardianship
of a non-US citizen.
But that information was false.
So Laura, my attorney, eventually
convinced her and showed her, well, documentation of her
being incorrect.
So she finally agreed.
And we got to get the guardianship.
This is really important, because it
was the main key for me to get my special immigrant juvenile
status.
So they immediately helped me apply
for a work permit to be able to work,
and a special immigrant juvenile visa in order to be in the US
legally.
So not even a year later in November 2017,
I won my petition.
And my life immediately improved.
So I was now able to work.
And I was able to supply myself with things I couldn't before.
I was not able to be in the United States
without fearing of being deported or being picked up
by ICE or any border patrol.
After this we petitioned for my residency.
So in February 21 of 2019 I received
my lawful permanent residency.
This is honestly--
I'm not even exaggerating-- one of the greatest
days of my life.
I don't know.
The thought of just being in a small city,
and like finally being able to leave
was so extraordinary to me.
I couldn't believe it.
It's like if I was finally free.
The first thing I did when I got my residency,
I crossed the border to Mexico to visit my father's grave.
And I don't know.
It felt really good to be able to visit him.
Adding to that, I was finally going
to be able to attend college with in-state tuition,
because before I was able to go to school,
but they would charge me out of state
doing to me not being a US citizen,
or a resident from here.
I'm sorry.
Which was something that had definitely
affected me, since I was really eager to continue my education.
So I'm now applying to colleges and financial aid
and hoping for the best.
I'm very grateful to have this opportunity that many others
don't get to obtain.
To have the opportunity to be able to have a career
and be successful, and especially
to roam freely with no fear of anything.
I just want to be one to prove that not all immigrants are
bad people.
We're just looking for a better place
to live where we can expand our opportunities.
I hope that from my insight you can all
understand a little better on how
hard the life of an undocumented person can be.
Thank you so much for taking your time
to listen to my story.
[APPLAUSE]
I'm going to embarrass Nadia for a second
and tell you all that I think this was her first time telling
her story publicly.
[APPLAUSE]
So the start of a long advocacy career.
And I'm just going to take one more minute of your time
before I let you listen to the poetry
that you ostensibly came to hear.
I want to encourage all of you tonight
to commit in some way to connecting with us.
And, of course, we are a nonprofit.
So one way that we need support from our community
is financial support.
So if you're in a place where you can give comfortably,
I would encourage you to consider this year when you're
doing your charitable giving to make a donation to the Florence
Project.
But if you're not able to do that right now,
we still want you to be a part of our work.
We have a growing volunteer program.
And Alvaro, our volunteer coordinator, his cards
are out right next to mine.
So you could grab both at the same time.
And actually, we have a pro bono program.
So if you're an attorney-- you don't have to be an immigration
attorney-- an attorney of any kind,
we have mentors on staff who can help you take on an immigration
case and defend somebody who otherwise wouldn't
have direct representation.
And if you're not an attorney, I would still
love to connect with you.
And I'm sure Alvaro would about ways that you
could make a long term volunteer commitment.
And then finally, if you aren't blessed with abundant resources
of time or money, we can still really use
the support of spreading the word about our work.
I truly believe that the reason that the immigrant detention
system thrives is because it is so well hidden.
If you've been to one of the detention centers,
you know that they're geographically hard to get to.
They're hidden out of plain sight.
And then in the media, and when you talk about immigration,
I think that what our clients face,
which is a lack of access to justice in the legal system,
and prolonged stays in detention,
those things don't quite make it into the mainstream media.
So I would encourage all of you to spread the word
and share Nadia's story if you want.
We have a lot more stories of other clients on our website
and in our materials.
So if you could all join me in shedding light
on this huge injustice, we would really, really appreciate it.
Thank you so much again.
And I'm so excited to hear the reading.
[APPLAUSE]