Takoma Park Silver Spring Community Safety Network (TPSS CSN) has been working overtime to help local immigrants know what their rights are if confronted by ICE officers.
TPSS CSN, a hyperlocal partner with the larger Montgomery County Immigrant Rights Collective, this year received a $5,000 Community Quality of Life grant from Takoma Park for its Know Your Rights & Community Resource Printing Initiative.
“The specific grant we received is for printing and enabling us to keep our zines and brochures, with what to do if you’re detained, flyers, information on how to make sure you don’t have to go to court appointments alone,” says Jaime Koppel, a co-lead at TPSS Community Safety Network. “All the costs build up.”
The group helps provide mutual aid to the community by providing things like culturally appropriate meals to those in need and information on dealing with ICE enforcement officers that have increased during Trump’s second term.
“We’re a mutual aid network, neighbors helping neighbors responding to the harms many are experience due to ICE,” says Koppel. “[We want] to ensure that when someone is being detained we can get their name in order to then work to alert their families since they aren’t notified by the government when they are detained. It may seem counter-intuitive to have to continue to tell people what their rights are, but it’s because the way people can be detained is always changing.”
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To help get the word out, TPSS CSN has a table at most Takoma Park and Silver Spring events, including the weekly Crossroads farmers market.
“To draw people into the work and raise awareness of what people’s rights are, we table everywhere,” says Koppel. “We have tabled through the summer and are tabling every week at the Crossroads community market and they have been an incredible partner. The more of us that are there, the more safe community members will feel. A gift of your presence is a gift to the market and the community.”
For those interested in helping with TPSS CSN, you can get in touch with them through the Instagram account, @tpss_csn.
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You can also find more information on other immigrant aid groups by visiting actionnetwork.org and immigrantrightscollective.org.
“At the end of the day, there’s a role for everyone in our work,” says Koppel. “All donations go directly to our work.”
Read the original article at takomapark
