JCIJ and the Incredible Accompaniment Program
An Interview with Dina Burstein and Dick Stein, Part 1

Bullies tend to prey upon the most vulnerable people in their midst.

Donald Trump and his treatment of immigrants in our country is a clear example of this. In both of his terms, Trump placed immigrants, those living here and those trying to enter, in the crosshairs of his racist and punitive immigration policies.

Citizen action is our recourse to push back, and this story is an example of how we can use that weapon to create something beautiful. We sat down

with Dina Burstein and Dick Stein, two founding members of the Accompaniment Program through JCIJ (Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice) to listen to their experiences.

In December of 2018, Dick was looking for post retirement options for volunteering. He got an email from a family member about accompaniment training. “That's the kind of thing I’m actually looking for,” he thought, so he went to the training.

There were about 50 people in attendance, and each person introduced themselves and stated how they found out about accompaniment. Nearly everyone in the room gave some variation of, “Dina said I should do this.” Sound familiar? By the end of the meeting, he had met Dina in person.

At that time, Dina had her own action group, which was similar to JCIJ, and through that she became involved with accompaniment. When Trump first became president, many people were asking themselves, “What can we do?” WAISN (Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network) was just starting up and announced that they would have an accompaniment program. Dina started going to the meetings, getting to know the staff and accompanying immigrants to ICE appointments. Soon Dick would join her.

They began working with the Church Council of Greater Seattle to set up an accompaniment program. The committee was called ACT, Accompaniment Core Team.

“From the beginning, it was exciting and it was interesting to notice that the entire group was composed of Jewish people! It was as part of the formation of WAISN that we began to do this work, and we continued to attend the WAISN monthly meetings, conferences and workshops. We also accepted the leadership of WAISN, which was founded and led by immigrants,” Dina said.

The program began ramping up by 2019. They had flyers in various languages, and they met with groups like public defender associations, immigration attorneys and veteran groups, and urged them to tell their members to call the Church Council hotline and request accompaniment.

“We designated the term ‘community member’ (CM) for the immigrants we accompanied,” Dina recalled. “Once we had the referral, we would then look for volunteers to attend the immigration appointment with the CM. This started at a very slow pace with approximately one or two accompaniments per week.”

When COVID hit, the program had to adapt. All the courts and the offices where immigrants had their check-in appointments were closed. No one had appointments during this time but there was a tremendous need among people not authorized to work, such as rental assistance, rides and merely purchasing food.

The Church Council and most of the accompaniment volunteers pivoted to doing direct supply of mutual aid. WAISN referred many people to the program, but people also came by word-of-mouth and through the Church Council.

Following the pandemic, the Church Council bequeathed the accompaniment program to the newly formed JCIJ, while continuing to run an immigrant support group called Grupo de Solidaridad. Once the second Trump administration came in, the number of referrals began increasing substantially.

The need for accompaniment continuously grew and JCIJ was there to meet the need, to take responsibility for creating and running a program and training new volunteers. A system was created where Dispatch oversees the accompaniment and pulls together the team of volunteers; Intake reaches out to CMs to prepare them for the ICE appointment or hearing, gathers background information, advises CMs about safety measures, develops a plan for their children in the event the CM is detained, and gets an emergency contact for each CM in the event of an emergency.

Accompaniment Volunteers (AV) meet the CM before the appointment and try to walk with them throughout, bearing witness, providing support and other resources as the needs of the family become known through the process. In the case where a CM is detained, AVs contact the emergency

contact person, move the CM’s car, and provide resource information so that family can contact the CM while in detention. There are currently about 160 volunteers working on 15-18 accompaniments per week.

Part of WAISN’s mission is to provide accompaniment and rapid response all over the state, particularly in Eastern Washington. Coordination through WASIN with other immigrant support programs around the state has been essential and fruitful. There are ICE offices in several areas of the state for check-ins and biometrics, but people from all over the state have to come to the immigration court in downtown Seattle.

Volunteers from other organizations provide transportation to CMs, often in the wee hours of the morning if the CM has a morning hearing, and coordinate with JCIJ volunteers for accompaniment. JCIJ volunteers work with other organizations in providing resources for basic needs and help completing immigration forms.

“A network of groups and agencies around the state, including WAISN, holds a monthly leadership meeting where we share updates and best practices,” Dina and Dick explained. “JCIJ has also done accompaniment trainings with other groups where we share all our materials and resources. There’s no territoriality involved in this. We share our documents and tell others to use, amend, and tailor them to meet their own needs. We’re proud to say that JCIJ has been lauded at our monthly leadership meetings for our work, the resources we’ve developed, the kindness and helpfulness of AVs, and our sharing with other groups. A lot of sharing. We received a small grant to reach out to other organizations and train their volunteers for their organization.”