Armao on the Brink: RISSE on ICE in the Capital Region

Rosemary Armao talks in this week’s chapter of her podcast On the Brink with Dan Butterworth the executive director — very busy director of RISSE (Pronounced RISE). — a small Albany non-profit dedicated to helping and supporting immigrants and refugees in the Capital District. That part of upstate New York is not cosmopolitan and the nearest immigration court is out near Buffalo, but it has seen plenty of horrific ICE actions against foreign born residents. Immigrants in the Albany area tend to be from Africa and the Middle East and they are terrified, he said. They aren’t coming to English classes, are afraid to go to the supermarket or to legally required meetings with immigration officials for fear of being plucked off the streets and whisked out of the country. There are things that native born Americans who don’t like the Stephen Miller-Donald Trump deportation policies can do. That includes sending laundry, shaving and mentrual supplies to Risse to distribute and witnessing-recording-and intervening in ICE actions around the area.