Local Agency Discusses Immigration Assistance in Under the Golden Dome Lecture Series

Katy Sastre, executive director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, discussed the support services her organization provides to immigrants in detention centers across the country in the first Under the Golden Dome lecture of the semester in Taylor Memorial Library on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

The Under the Golden Dome series was started by Pastor Tim and the late Dr. Noah Haiduc-Dale as an effort to bring social awareness to the University. “The purpose of why we gather is that the United Methodist Church is dedicated to social justice,” said Pastor Tim. He also quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Centenary’s history includes being founded by the Methodist church, and our new president, John Schol, is also a bishop within the Methodist Church.

First Friends of New Jersey and New York was started in 1997 after Sastre visited people at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, NJ, and received funding from the Methodist Church to start the program. First Friends works to provide immigrants housed in detention centers with commissary funds, bail money, food, clothes, hygiene products, transportation, and legal assistance. They also provide gift cards, food, and diapers to families of immigrants. In addition, First Friends hosts events, such as pumpkin carving at Halloween, at Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey.

The presentation saw 15 attendees, including Pastor Tim; President Schol; Dr. Robert Battistini, professor of English and senior dean of education and humanities; Leonard Kunz, chief of campus security; one undergraduate student, Alexis d’Ambly, senior writing major; and several social work graduate students. 

Sastre brought awareness to the current topic of immigration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention, and the current political administration's involvement. 

According to Sastre, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the detention centers, waiting for their case to be heard by a judge, but there aren’t enough lawyers and legal representation available. 

First Friends raises funds to help people in detention centers post bail. “Bond assistance is one of the most significant ways right now that we can impact someone’s life,” said Sastre, “because you’re much more likely to be able to win your case and stay in the country if you’re not in detention. We are out there trying as much as possible to get people out.”

The program works remotely across New Jersey using a phone app so volunteers can answer calls to their hotline. The phone number, according to Sastre, gets passed around detention centers across the country and the hotline gets regular calls from people released from detention, requesting transportation home. 

First Friends is a small organization in need of volunteers, especially Spanish-speaking. If interested in being added to their email list, volunteering, or donating to the organization, scan the QR codes above.