On Sunday, April 22, the COWC presented the deportation defense training in Athens, Ohio. This was an important step for us. So far we have presented in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Ohio – all places with large, recognizable immigrant populations and established immigration rights organizations. Athens, on the other hand, has a less visible population of immigrants and less organizational infrastructure to support immigrant rights. Much of our conversation involved next steps for providing the space and resources for immigrant-led projects to develop. We appreciate all that we learned from the participants about the differences and similarities between doing immigrant rights in larger metropolitan areas and smaller, rural areas. We are certain to work together for a long time to come.
We appreciate the hospitality from the social work faculty and students at Ohio University, especially Kerri Shaw who did so much to put the event together, and Colleen Dempsey from the NASW Ohio for making the event possible. Also exciting: OSU geography student and COWC Immigrant Justice Committee member Patrick Clearly stepped in for Jessica who couldn’t make it this weekend, and he did an excellent job! Patrick is already an accomplished scholar, he active in the local activist community, he is trilingual, and he recently received a grant to study the social and political geography of Chiapas, Mexico.
