They flow into and out of Downtown's LeVeque Tower each day, often with an electronic monitor strapped to one ankle.

And some local advocates want to be there when the undocumented immigrants ride the elevator to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on the third floor to check in with federal immigration officials.

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The Columbus Sanctuary Collective and North Broadway United Methodist Church in Clintonville, along with others, recently held a training session for people interested in accompanying undocumented immigrants to their ICE check-ins at the LeVeque Tower or immigration court in Cleveland.

The program is among a growing number nationwide, from California to New York and many places in between, that train volunteers to accompany immigrants to appointments with federal agents. This is the first one being set up in central Ohio.

Before the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants reported to ICE routinely. They were allowed to stay in the country because past administrations considered them a low priority for deportation. But since President Donald Trump's election, there have been reports that immigrants who show up for the ICE check-ins have been detained or given deportation orders at their appointments.

>>Read more: Migrant with HIV settles with local link

At the recent "accompaniment training" at Columbus Mennonite Church in Clintonville, activist Ravi Ragbir informed about 50 potential volunteers how to engage in the process without inserting themselves into it. An immigrant from Trinidad, Ragbir has been trying to reverse an order for his deportation since 2006 and is intimately familiar with the detention and court systems.

"We train people how to advocate for someone without doing harm," said Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition, which is based in New York City and offers support to immigrants facing detention and deportation. "Accompaniment is advocacy without confrontation."

Having someone at court proceedings and ICE check-ins, advocates say, can help immigrants who are often anxious about the possibility of being deported. Volunteers can, for example, help calm nerves, let immigrants know that someone is on their side, and even discourage officials from using scare tactics.

"There's a lot of intimidation by ICE officers," Ragbir said, adding that the volunteers can assist in holding immigration officials accountable to treat the person with respect.

When asked about check-ins and officer conduct, ICE regional spokesman Khaalid Walls said only that check-in requirements are determined case-by-case, based on factors including pending appeals or petitions, issuance of travel documents, or whether the person is waiting to go before an immigration judge.

Typically, a group will accompany the person to court and check-ins, and at least one person speaks the immigrant's native language, said Cindy Gaillard, a member of North Broadway United Methodist Church's leadership council. Anyone can volunteer to be an advocate, she said, whatever languages they speak.

Local immigrant advocates, including the late Ruben Castilla Herrera, wanted Ragbir to speak to the community, said Gaillard. Two undocumented immigrant women — one from Mexico, the other from Honduras — live in Columbus churches for sanctuary from ICE and deportation.

>>Read more: Honduran family lives in Northwest Side church while awaiting asylum

"There's an immigrant community here that's afraid of ICE and the Trump administration," Ragbir said. "No one wants to be deported; most people have a family or a community here."

Ohio has the third-highest rate of community arrests by ICE, according to a recent report by TRAC, a Syracuse University clearinghouse that gathers and analyzes data on immigration from government agencies.

From October 2017 to September 2018, ICE officials arrested 1,284 people in Ohio, including 787 in Franklin County, according to TRAC.

People's fears have only risen since Trump stepped up enforcement and vowed in June to deport millions of immigrants from the United States "as fast as they come in," advocates say.



Accompaniment is "even more important now," said Maria Ramos, community outreach manager at the YMCA of Central Ohio's New American Welcome Center, which helps new immigrants fit in and thrive in their new community.

Ramos has been an advocate for immigrants since she was young, first helping her relatives from El Salvador on their paths to citizenship, then working with Avanza Together, a Columbus nonprofit group that helps immigrants facing deportation, and joining the YMCA in January 2018.

She said there's a need for more volunteers to accompany undocumented immigrants to their appointments with federal officials.

"We need for more people to be educated," Ramos said.



Ragbir started offering training sessions about 10 years ago and said the hardest thing for communities is to connect immigrants with volunteers to accompany them. He said he's going to share a system he uses in New York with the Columbus group and can return to train more people if necessary.

In a typical week in New York, his coalition might coordinate 70 accompaniments, he said.

Jan Phillips, a member of First Unitarian Universalist Church in Beechwold, has been advocating for immigrants since Edith Espinal, a mother of three from Mexico, went into sanctuary in October 2017 at Columbus Mennonite Church, where she remains.

"I see the work we're doing as part of the larger resistance movement," she said.

>>Read more: More churches choosing to house asylum-seeking migrants

Phillips said of the training that Ragbir provides: "Ravi gave me hope that we can make little changes, and little changes can make big changes."

Phillips has accompanied two people to immigration court in Cleveland and also helps set up a table outside the LeVeque Tower twice a month with other members of her church to offer cookies, water, know-your-rights information and encouragement to immigrants meeting with federal authorities.

She said the next step is to get an accompaniment program operating.

"We are a community of faith, and we are saying to people checking in, 'There are those of us in this country who do not agree with what's being done to you,'" Phillips said. "We are in solidarity with people going into ICE."

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing