On Saturday, April 5, Vassar College hosted “Bridging Academia and Advocacy: Hudson Valley Immigration and Leadership Summit,” a half-day event aimed at spreading resources and awareness amid the changing landscape of immigration policy. The event was conceptualized by Owen McGarry ’25 and planned alongside Amaris Hall ’25; it included nearly a dozen local organizations and 10 speakers from the Hudson Valley and Washington, D.C. Throughout the course of the afternoon, over 100 students and community members attended the event in Rockefeller Hall 200.
The idea for the event grew from McGarry’s experience volunteering in Poughkeepsie’s Latine community; he has been working at the free English classroom taught by Stephen Haff at Christ Episcopal Church for about three years. When, earlier this semester, the church announced protocol for potential Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, McGarry said, “I was really taken aback, and I wanted to know what we were doing as an institution, what was Vassar doing, and I asked.” Not satisfied with what he found, McGarry started by reaching out to community organizations to ask what they needed and how the College community could help. He emphasized the importance of approaching these conversations with humility and openness to build trust, noting, “Once you have your foot in the door, it’s amazing the way that these conversations build on one another.”
McGarry connected with Hall based on her interests as co-president of the Vassar Law Club. They then worked together with Jannette Swanson at the Center for Career Education to apply for funding through Engaged Pluralism’s Igniter Pitches. Both McGarry and Hall noted how instrumental this support was, with McGarry saying, “I think that organizing within the College gives you a lot of access to money and intellectual capital and organizing experience that you wouldn’t really have access to otherwise.”
The summit included testimonials from teenage members of the Youth Arts Group (YAG) on the importance of political art, a keynote address by YAG alumna and political organizer Maria Christina Martinez, a presentation on how immigration law has changed under the Trump administration and two panels, one on legal perspectives for migrant support and one on grassroots service work with migrants.
Panel speakers consistently noted that while immigration law has not substantially changed under the Trump administration, the scope and tools of enforcement have greatly increased. Immigration lawyers who spoke at the event described how President Donald Trump has given ICE wide discretion to arrest non-citizens at courthouses, schools and churches, as well as to bypass due process—the rights those accused of a crime are guaranteed before being convicted—by using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which has historically been used against U.S. residents from countries with which the United States is actively at war. Robert Horne, the founder of the Hudson Valley Regional Immigration Assistance Center, clarified during the event that the Protect Our Courts Act shields individuals in courthouses from civil arrests in New York State. Sabrina Surgil ’21, a deportation defense attorney on the first panel, said of immigration law under Trump, “It feels like everything is more chaotic and less transparent.”
Another way Trump has bypassed due process for immigrants is the 2025 Laken Riley Act, which mandates detention of immigrants accused of theft, assaulting a law enforcement officer or any other crime that causes death or bodily injury. To be subject to mandatory detention, immigrants need only be accused, not convicted, of a crime, thereby depriving them of the right to a fair trial. During the second panel, Amanda Sullivan ’91, the Director of Refugee Services at Jewish Vocational Service Boston, called the act immigration law’s first substantial change in 30 years as most previous changes came from executive orders, which are reversible. A community member in attendance, Valerie Carlisle of Grannies Respond, a grassroots organization working to reunite migrant families, told The Miscellany News, “During the first panel I was scribbling down a lot of things, because even though immigration law hasn’t changed as much there’s always these new nuances to how they’re using it.”
Robert Fuchs, another panelist and immigration lawyer for over 30 years, said that the current changes are indicative of more to come: “The biggest change has been lack of due process… It starts with immigrants and then it comes to you.” Vassar Assistant Professor of History Daniel Mendiola, who moderated the first panel, said that under Trump, “We are seeing a startling escalation in cruelty and injustice.” He emphasized that this is only an intensification of an extensive history: “Our immigration system in this country has long been cruel and problematic.”
Another common theme was immigrants’ role as workers in the United States. Fuchs said during the first panel, “The country needs immigrants as much as immigrants need the U.S.” Surgil commented, “People are more than just workers.” They added that non-citizens are deserving of help not because they will help the U.S. economy but because all people have inherent worth.
Participants of both panels emphasized that breaking down this limited view of immigrants requires spending time in local migrant communities. Susie Ximenez, the Executive Director of Adelante Student Voices, which has a summer program at Vassar that helps undocumented students access higher education, counseled students to take any opportunity to leave the Vassar bubble and be in community with their migrant neighbors. Non-citizens want to be members of a larger community, she said, not just a workforce for citizens. On the second panel, Enrique Rob Lunski of ABClatino expressed a similar sentiment. Part of the stigma around the Latin American community, he said, is that the term “Latino” collapses a variety of Latin American identities into a monolith. “You have to know the group before you can help them effectively,” he said.
Echoing McGarry’s reflections about the importance of word of mouth connections, many of the community organizers on the panels emphasized the value of collaboration across organizations. Second panel member Inginia Jackson of Camino al Éxito noted the work is about connecting and broadening access to resources: “Creating access to information is the key right now.” Common issues panelists expressed the need for included legal services, English education, housing and medical help.
After the summit, Ximenez elaborated on the need for students to get involved in local organizing. “We definitely need more college students to show up, even if it’s sometimes just signing onto the Care Campaign or signing on to something. But it’s those little, small steps and initiatives that will [be] an introductory to advocacy,” she said.
Student attendees commented on the timeliness of the event, with Jane Hurley ’27 noting, “I think campus organizing right now has been really difficult due to the recent onslaught of events in the Trump administration, and as crisis piles onto crisis, it’s been difficult to parse out where to organize.” She continued, “And so, seeing this event that specifically addresses what’s happening right now with immigration, and that creates access to organizational strategies within the Poughkeepsie community, and bridges access to this information between students, faculty and community members, is I think really important right now for addressing the Trump administration on campus.”
McGarry emphasized that in the end, “I wanted to make sure that everyone who came and felt concerned about the way that migration policy is affecting and destroying families within our community, that they knew they didn’t have to do it all themselves.” Hall added, “This was such an incredibly rewarding experience and I could not have asked for this event to go better.” She concluded the interview with a reminder about what students can achieve, saying, “All of this started because one student emailed one organization.”