“Many of us in the PSC are looking for meaningful ways to fight back against the rising tide of fascism in the U.S.,” says Geoff Johnson, who teaches at the College of Staten Island. Johanna Fernandez, Associate Professor of History at Baruch, comments: “I’ve never been involved in such face-to-face political work. You see the political violence of the state.” Pennee Bender, recently retired from the Graduate Center, observes, “There are so many things now that we can’t fight; this is one we can fight.” And Anitta Santiago, who teaches in CUNY Start at Hostos, adds, “For all the bad you see, like ICE manhandling a man with a serious back injury, you also see the beauty of people in action.”
IN ACTION
The PSC has been in action supporting our immigrant neighbors in the federal courthouses since early summer. Johnson, Fernandez, Bender and Santiago are among the 146 who have joined the union’s work to protect the legal rights of immigrants and support New Yorkers who face the growing terror of the federal immigration court system. With many members returning many times, we had more than 360 discrete visits to the courtrooms. Starting in late May, the federal government began making hundreds of arrests a day inside federal immigration courthouses, targeting immigrants who had shown up for required court hearings. The epicenter has been New York City. By early June, scores of heavily armed, masked agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were lining the hallways of the courthouse buildings in Lower Manhattan, waiting for those who were leaving their court hearings. Regardless of whether the judge had granted a follow-up hearing, ICE agents have grabbed immigrant community members and forced them into detention, sometimes physically tearing them out of the arms of their families.
PSC members recognized that the threat of violent arrest by ICE in the courts has made
Unions and community groups will rally and march through lower Manhattan the evening of Thursday, September 25 to protest ICE’s persecution of immigrants at 29 Federal Plaza and in our communities, reject any deployment of federal troops or law enforcement personnel to our city, and demand that city and state lawmakers pass legislation to protect immigrants and oppose collaboration with the federal government’s program of mass deportation. RSVP here.
some CUNY colleagues, students, and their communities newly vulnerable. Led by the union’s Immigrant Solidarity Working Group, the PSC has trained and organized members from every CUNY campus to participate in weekly shifts at the immigration courts. Early every Friday morning throughout the summer, PSC members have gathered in Foley Square to prepare to visit the courthouse buildings as observers – as is our right under the law – and talk with fellow New Yorkers who are awaiting their court hearings. Participants ask those awaiting hearings if they would like someone to sit beside them, to read to their children in the waiting room, to share information that would help their families find them if they are detained. Coordinating with volunteer social workers and community organizations, some of which have been doing court support for decades, the PSC has been the only union in the city to have an organized presence in the courts.
Andrea Vásquez, PSC Secretary and leader of the Immigrant Solidarity Working Group, comments: “It is no surprise that our members care deeply about our students, our communities and our city. Bearing witness in the courts will continue even as we bring this work to the campuses this semester. We understand that we must exercise our legal rights if we are to retain them and we also understand that we must organize to build our power as a union if we are to face future challenges.”
Below are excerpts from the testimony of three PSC court watchers who shared their responses at an August union meeting.
Hard process
It is difficult – feelings of helplessness and anger are inevitable when we watch as someone is taken by a gang of masked men. I won’t forget accompanying one gentleman who had received a return court date but who then had his backpack rifled through by an agent as other masked men stepped forward and hustled him off. I felt guilty for not doing more – for not being able to stop it. I think all of us who have done court observations have felt that way. But the work also feels meaningful and important. We are there to offer support in the ways that we can and to bear witness to the horrors being visited upon our neighbors by a racist, authoritarian state. As NYC education workers, it isn’t something we should allow to happen without being present in some way, without saying “no.”
Standing with immigrants in court is worthwhile in its own right, but I believe it can also level up our ability to act collectively and effectively in these times. None of these horrors are likely to stop anytime soon, and we need to strengthen our organizing muscles. We need to build solidarity within the PSC and increase our capacity to take meaningful actions in the years ahead.
Geoff Johnson
College of Staten Island
Not easy
I’ve been to the courthouse six or seven times since June. It never feels easy and often leaves one feeling powerless, but I keep going back because, like many of you I’m sure agree, it feels like important work on several levels:
One level is the support and comfort we can provide to individuals as we sit with them and walk with them through the very hostile hallways
On another level, I feel a larger sense of solidarity that our actions engender among all individuals that gather in the courthouse but also as representatives of a union that is expressing its solidarity with immigrants.
Then there are the times when folks are taken by ICE agents, which are horrible and upsetting. But we are able to provide the important work of witnessing and documenting the arrests. We can gather information that will keep those arrested on the radar and not just let them disappear. We can reach out to their loved ones or friends and let them know what has happened and help them be tracked through the detention system and hopefully get them some assistance.
And for me on a larger level is the need to take some action in the face of all the illegal and inhumane actions by the government. And to stand up in public to say these actions are wrong.
Pennee Bender
Graduate Center
Witness
Coming from a family of immigrants, my recent experience as a court watcher has given me the opportunity to witness how broken the immigration system has become. I have seen how ICE is intentionally intimidating. Aside from being masked, ICE officers are heavily armed despite the airport-like security that everyone must pass through to get into the buildings. Since Trump has deputized all federal enforcement agencies, ICE is comprised of agents from diverse sectors, including ATF, Treasury, and others unrelated to Homeland Security. The mishmash of different agencies makes me question how organized ICE really is – there is too much potential for more chaos. I would not call myself courageous, but when I see immigrants bravely come in for their hearings, walking through the spectacle of ICE and the press without legal representation nor interpreters, I figure I too can put on a brave face to help out, and to bear witness.
Sandra Cheng
City Tech
Published: September 12, 2025
