Embedded Files
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY
On Friday, February 6, the Graduate School of Social Service gathered a group of interdisciplinary experts to discuss the state of immigration in the United States and how sectors can come together to advocate for those most vulnerable.
The event, titled “Criminalizing Compassion: Upholding Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Immigration Practice,” took place at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. The event was sponsored by Her Migrant Hub, Catholic Charities, the Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice, and NYC Public Advocate Jumanne D. Williams’s office.
A dizzying time in our country
GSS Dean Debra M. McPhee, PhD, opened the event by thanking those in attendance for raising their hands to participate in a difficult but necessary discussion. She reflected on the pride that comes from being a social worker and dedicating her career to a profession that works every day to build a better future for everyone—particularly those without a voice.
“I’m especially proud to be part of a profession and an institution dedicated to defending and protecting human rights and social justice—in our city, across the country, and around the globe,” she said. “In the last 12 months, our country has witnessed a dizzying onslaught of inhumanity. But being here today with all of you brings me a renewed sense of hope.”
McPhee acknowledged the room’s cross-section of professionals as its ultimate strength. The event brought together advocates from multiple disciplines to create a path forward through this dark period.
Dean Debra M. McPhee, PhD
Jumaane D. Williams
“We have lawyers, judges, legal advocates, social workers, community organizers, immigrants, activists, students, and educators who are individually and collectively committed to fighting back and creating solutions,” she said. “I say create intentionally, because solutions to this crisis will not be found; they must be demanded and secured through strong coalitions, collaboration, and communities.”
McPhee then introduced the day’s keynote speaker, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. A lifelong New Yorker, Williams brought his rich lived experience and a decade of legislative leadership to the discussion — reminding the audience that while we cannot avoid “looking into the darkness” of what’s happening today, we must not get lost in it.
“Our dialogue on how we can bravely show up for our neighbors—fully aware of the risk—will move us forward,” Williams later said in a post on Instagram.
Criminalizing basic human kindness
Under the first Trump administration, keynote speaker Scott Warren was charged—and later acquitted—with harboring a pair of migrants from Central America after Border Patrol agents reported seeing him provide them with food and shelter in the Arizona desert.
In 2017, while working with the Arizona-based Humanitarian group “No More Deaths,” Warren focused his efforts on the remote Growler Valley. He detailed approaching the management of the Cabesa National Wildlife Refuge and asking for permission to drive administrative roads and leave water in areas where people were dying. Management wavered.
“So, we let them know that we would go ahead and do it anyway,” Warren said.
Scott Warren
One day, while approaching “The Barn” — a “base camp” for No More Death’s operations — Warren was arrested. On the advice of legal scholars who’d reached out after Warren’s arrest, Warren and his pro bono lawyers utilized the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to get him acquitted.
Warren recalled the Government prosecutors arguing that Warren had given food, water, blankets, and shelter to migrants he’d met in Arizona with the intent of hiding them from border patrol and breaking the law. After all, prosecutors continued, what other intent could one have for doing these things?
“We argued the intent in doing so was humanitarian, in an effort to prevent the death and suffering of people at the Borderlands,” Warren said.
A panel dedicated to finding a better way
The event’s panel further addressed the challenges of today’s legal system and how they intersect with political, economic, and humanitarian failures, creating an environment where achieving positive outcomes is nearly impossible.
Lisa Landau
Lisa Landau, Executive Director of Fordham Law’s Feerick Center, began the conversation by addressing the Trump administration’s attacks on sanctuary cities, judges, and even members of Congress in its aggressive immigration efforts.
“[These actions] represent the criminalization of compassion and provide a continuing call for all of us to take action,” she said. “Legal principles are based on humanitarian principles.”
Before assuming her current role as Senior Counsel of the nonprofit CoCounsel, panelist Carmen Maria Rey Caldas served as an Immigration Judge with the US Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) at the Stewart, Georgia, and New York City Immigration Courts. An immigrant herself, Caldas said that while the past 12 months may seem unprecedented, for those within the system, there were signs.
“This was foretold,” she said. “We knew we would get here because of the patterns we’ve seen play out in the legal system.”
For Caldas, it was difficult to reconcile her position on the bench, given the history of the system and how it could be unfairly used against people. To address the issue, she recognized the need to excavate the system’s roots and start again.
Carmen Maria Rey Caldas
“Our immigration laws need rewriting. They’re inhumane. And my job was to apply them,” she said. “We must continue to fight to uphold all the freedoms of all people in the US.”
As a first-year student at Fordham Law, Emerson Argueta chose to volunteer at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, over spring break with Fordham’s Feerick Center. The experience was profound and set him on a career trajectory of advocacy. Argueta, originally from El Salvador, continues to work with the Feerick Center after graduating with his law degree in 2018.
Emerson Aguerta (top)
He spoke about the “School to Prison Pipeline” that occurred in Suffolk County, Long Island, during the first Trump administration, where students were detained for alleged gang activity when they doodled in their class notebooks. Aguerta also expressed fear for the Feerick Center’s partners in El Paso, TX, during the second Trump administration. According to an Executive Order issued on March 7, 2025, these organizations could be pursued for “aiding and abetting” illegal immigration, much as keynote speaker Warren had been in Arizona.
Lastly, Aguerta mentioned Texas’s break from the American Bar Association—the US law school accrediting body—in favor of allowing the state’s Supreme Court to accredit law schools.
“It’s concerning, because the Texas Supreme Court will say which law schools can educate lawyers—and a lot of detention centers and deportations are occurring in Texas,” Aguerta said. “What we’re seeing is this creation of a system that’s a farce; judges—and soon attorneys—who don’t know the law.”
Finally, the audience heard from Niurka Meléndez, a dedicated advocate for displaced individuals and asylum seekers. Meléndez, who works in web publishing and also founded Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid (VIA), came to the US from Venezuela in 2016 and endured 9 years of waiting before she and her family were granted official asylum status.
“We often talk about migration as a choice, but from where we stand, every day we see something totally different,” Meléndez said. “Most people don’t want to leave their home. They’re forced to migrate.”
Niurka Meléndez
Immigration resources for the future
After a room-wide roundtable discussion, the event concluded with a resource fair for attendees, offering assistance materials and guidance on how to get involved as an advocate.
The interdisciplinary nature of the event and its participants was a microcosm of the broader United States—a representation of what truly makes America great: diversity. Openness. Opportunity.
“I thank you all for the support that has enabled us to convene such an interdisciplinary and distinguished group of change agents,” McPhee said, addressing the crowd. “Collaboration is an essential tool in confronting those committed to division and to turning back the clock on hard-won freedoms achieved by those who came before us.”
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