The Architects of Precarity, Ruin, Destruction; and the Thieves of Human Dignity

During research into the problems facing vulnerable communities, one conclusion becomes inescapable: many of the deepest social ills are not accidents of fate, but features of a system designed to maximize profit. This is the realm of corporate complicity, where powerful entities do not merely tolerate suffering, but actively architect it. The modern corporation operates under a non-negotiable legal and economic mandate: maximizing shareholder value above all else. This isn't a moral position; it's a legal requirement. When a corporation must always prioritize profit, the needs of communities become secondary, or even a direct obstacle. This mandate is the engine that manufactures the condition we call precarity.

Precarity: A Manufactured Crisis

Many people confuse the term precarity with its root, precarious, which means merely uncertain. However, precarity is much deeper; it is an active state of being that is systematically manufactured. It is an existence characterized by a pervasive lack of predictability, security, and material or psychological welfare.

“Am I complicit?” is the question I ask myself every time I advocate or help someone. Complicity is not defined by those who actively build the cages, but by those whose necessary and good-hearted work creates the social tolerance for the cages to remain. I want to explore this topic of complicity and the paradox of service.

We live in an age of abundant resources. We have built global supply chains that ensure any product is available anywhere on Earth, instant communication technology that connects billions of people, and the capacity for rapid travel across any continent. Yet, the world’s most fundamental cruelties, poverty, political instability, and forced migration do not abate.

In the midst of this paradox, we look to crises like the border. We see desperate families, the surge of human need, and our immediate, correct moral response: service. Organizations, from church groups to international NGOs mobilize to provide food, shelter, legal counsel, and medical care. This is a profound and necessary act of human compassion. But what if this critical humanitarian work is not just alleviating the problem, but is structurally enabling its persistence?

The core question of this series is not about malice, but about complicity.

We explore the great, unspoken dilemma of all modern social intervention: The Paradox of Service vs. Change.

On August 14, 2025, New Sanctuary Coalition executive director Ravi Ragbir reported to an Application Support Center operated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security or DHS) located at a strip mall in Brooklyn. There, he was photographed and submitted fingerprints, a required step to replacing his green card.

Before receiving a pardon in January for a conviction that resulted in two years in immigration detention and a two-decade fight against deportation, Ragbir had to attend biometrics appointments on a regular basis as his status hung in the balance. Last week's appointment in Brooklyn may well be the last time he needs to attend one.

“Even though I don’t expect anything to happen and this is just one part of the process, I am anxious,” said Ragbir before entering the storefront. “Nothing is normal anymore, so you’re not sure what’s going to happen. The anxiety is there. You can see that in the people going in.”

In attendance were faith leaders the Rev. Dr. Robert Foltz-Morris, the Rev. Thia Reggio, the Rev. Adriene Thorne, and the Rev. Elizabeth G. Maxwell, and Aaron Miner. When entering the facility, only the Rev. Thorne and attorney Stephen Kelley were allowed to enter with Ragbir. Thankfully, he emerged from the facility within a few minutes and exited the building without incident.

The Rev. Thorne provides a first-hand account of what happened within those few minutes:

As of May 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies are swarming the hallways and lobbies of immigration courthouses, striking fear into people who wish to fight deportation through legal channels.

Remember: People in deportation proceedings can request that their hearings be online rather than in person. 

Non-citizens with legal representation can have their lawyers make a motion to move their hearings online. Those without lawyers can do it themselves by filing a pro se Motion to Change format.

pro se: Representing oneself (in court); without an attorney.

Filing a Pro Se Motion to Change format

WHAT TO SUBMIT
The motion is a legal filing with an explanation for why attending court in person is not possible along with evidence (or exhibits), a form for the judge to fill out, and a “proof of service” page. You can find a full set of instructions and a template at bit.ly/nipmotion. Download a fill-in-the-blank Word document at bit.ly/psmworddoc. The motion must be filled out in English.

In your motion, you can cite travel distance or expenses, lack of childcare, the need to care for a loved one who can not care for themselves, special school events, or other practical obstacles to attending in person.

It is ultimately up to the judge to decide whether or not to grant your motion. Judges have widely varying personalities, so more thorough explanations are more likely to be accepted.

Photo via the Department of Homeland Security

On May 29, 2025, Kenneth Genalo stepped down from his role as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) Emergency and Removal Operations (ERO) section. Genalo, who has a background in New York City, is being replaced by Marcos Charles, previously a Field Office Director for ERO’s Dallas office about whom little else is known. As the leader of ERO, Genalo orchestrated and oversaw the raids, arrests, and deportations that ripped families apart, causing pain and suffering to millions

In his leadership of the ERO, Genalo went far beyond mere enforcement; he participated in an aggressive political effort to attack sanctuary laws throughout the country, especially in New York City, where major concessions have been granted to ICE. Alongside the current Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (or “Border Czar”) Thomas Homan, he appeared in the press and in political meetings where he put pressure on state and city leaders to cooperate the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) deportation efforts.

In December of 2024, Genalo was featured in a televised interview, saying, “I get disgusted and disappointed when I hear these false narratives about ICE is out doing sweeps, ICE is out doing raids; once ICE is done going after criminals... they’ll be targeting abuela [Spanish for ‘grandmother’].” In spite of Genalo’s disgust and disappointment, ICE has since been executing countless raids and sweeps, not to mention waves of courthouse arrests, imprisoning and forcefully removing grandparents, children, veterans, campus activists, and many other cherished human beings, regardless of any level of criminal involvement.

In a sweeping effort to meet deportation quotas and instill fear in communities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a series of arrests at immigration courthouses nationwide on May 20, 2025. These arrests targeted non-citizens deemed eligible for expedited removal, a process that bypasses court proceedings and fast-tracks removals. ICE’s intent is clear: to discourage individuals from attending their hearings, effectively undermining their right to due process.

Cities confirmed to be affected include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, and Seattle. ICE officers have been seizing individuals both inside and outside courthouses, some even detained in bathrooms and elevators. Victims include children, families, and individuals who had just been informed that their deportation cases had been dismissed. The moment that should have brought relief instead became a trap for expedited removal.

Plainclothes ICE officers prowl immigration court, 290 Broadway, in New York City.

Reports indicate that ICE is working in tandem with DHS prosecutors and federal judges to carry out these summary deportations. This is not an isolated attack; it is part of a broader strategy. On April 22, New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC) member Rafa was detained during his routine Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) check-in, a stark example of how immigration enforcement exploits bureaucratic procedures to detain those seeking legal status. Endi, a minor and an NSC member, was detained following his hearing at 290 Broadway in Manhattan, despite his pending case and upcoming court date. ICE continues to use check-ins and hearings as ambushes, targeting vulnerable individuals under the guise of procedural enforcement.

Missing a hearing or check-in can lead to in absentia deportation orders making individuals instantly deportable—a legal loophole ICE will undoubtedly exploit. With the January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14159, the scope of expedited removals expanded, making a larger population vulnerable to deportation without due process.

COMMUNITY ACTION—HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Last Saturday, May 10, 2025, the defense committee that fought against Ravi Ragbir’s deportation for 17 years gathered along with allies, friends, and family to commemorate the presidential pardon that the team secured in January. The festivities were held at Park Avenue Christian Church, where Pastor Kaji Dousa, a longtime ally of Ragbir and activist for immigrant sanctuary, presided over remarks and prayers.

Ragbir and his spouse, Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee, thanked the community for their stalwart support. They also unveiled an exciting update: that as of two weeks prior, the Board of Immigration Appeals had fully dropped deportation proceedings against Ragbir. Remarks were then delivered by attorneys Alina Das and Jessica Rofé, who helmed the defense committee as part of their roles leading the NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic. Many of the current and former law students that had contributed to the effort were in attendance.

Speakers included longtime allies of the effort: Representative Yvette Clarke, State Assemblymember Jo Ann Simon, Representative Jerry Nadler, Mizue Aizeki and Marie Mark of the Surveillance Resistance Project, the Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer of the Interfaith Center of New York, and The Rev. Canon Marie Tatro of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who delivered a prayer.

At the end of the program, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who had been arrested protesting ICE’s attempted deportation of Ragbir in 2018, presented certificates on behalf of his office to Das, Pastor Dousa, and law students and Ravi Defense Committee members Djibril Branche and Mariel Gonzalez-Medellin. He then issued a Proclamation, commemorated by a framed print, to Rofé.

The event ended with a dance party marshalled by DJ Vincent Southerland, a joyous end to a heartfelt ceremony and a moment of rejuvenation for the continuing struggle against deportation.

This past Sunday, the Quaker Walk to Washington, a Project of the Brooklyn Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (or Brooklyn Quaker Meeting), completed the first day of its sojourn to Washington, DC.

Walk participants started the day at the Flushing Friends Quaker Meeting House in Queens, proceeding on foot to 110 Schermerhorn St in Downtown Brooklyn, where the Brooklyn Meeting has been hosting the New Sanctuary Coalition’s meetings and work sessions. They were escorted by allies including New Jersey’s Winds of the Spirit, an immigrant resource center that has been serving its community for 25 years.

As walkers celebrated the first 13-mile leg of the 19-day trek to Washington DC with a meal, they were joined by New Sanctuary members, many of them Quakers themselves, who spoke about the organization’s ongoing initiatives to fight deportation, including the burgeoning court accompaniment program and the upcoming Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) training on May 12.

The Quaker Walk concludes on May 22, when participants will unite with the DC Interfaith March for Freedom. That afternoon, they will walk to the United States Capitol Building and present congressional representatives with the Flushing Remonstrance, a 1657 document authored by leaders in the town of Flushing (now Flushing, Queens) to the Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, then the top colonial administrator of New Netherland. The document expresses the town’s rejection of Stuyvesant’s order to forbid Quaker worship and asserts their desire to foster religious and ethnic plurality, to “soe love,” and to “doe unto all men as we desire all men should doe unto us.” It is considered a precursor to the Bill of Rights.

At present, the Quaker Walk is on its third day, traversing southward from Plainfield Friends Meeting House to Blackwell Mills Canal House (both in New Jersey). We wish them Godspeed!

On Saturday, March 9, 2025, plain-clothed ICE agents forced their way into a residence owned by Columbia University and abducted Mahmoud Khalil, a Green Card-holding permanent resident who had been participating in protests against the war on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine. The Department of Homeland Security has since reported that the order to detain and deport Khalil came specifically from the White House. He remains in ICE custody at present.

The New Sanctuary Coalition joined many community organizations — including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Shut It Down for Palestine, the People’s Forum, Desis Rising Up and Moving, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation — for an emergency rally held the following Monday at Federal Plaza. New Sanctuary leader Ravi Ragbir joined the rally's organizers at the Thomas Paine Park fountain and delivered remarks to the crowd of approximately 3,000, discussing the similarities between ICE’s kidnapping of Khalil and their attempted deportation of Ragbir in 2018. He made it clear that both he and Khalil had been targeted for speaking out, and that the immigrant community and its allies will not be intimidated by ICE’s attempts to instill fear. He pointed out that ICE is a civil agency with no jurisdiction over citizens, and those with citizenship status should use it to resist and repel ICE’s attempts at detaining and deporting our Friends.

Ragbir was interviewed at the rally by Gothamist. Read their coverage here.

Ravi Ragbir and the Rev. Dr. Robert Foltz-Morrison

SanctuaryHood is an effort by New Sanctuary Coalition and allies to educate and train our neighbors and local businesses on how to protect each other from ICE raids.

In the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens, the site of a recent ICE raid, the community organizations Desis Rising up and Moving (DRUM) and the South Queens Women’s March (SQWM) have taken the streets to conduct SanctuaryHood walkthroughs. During walkthroughs, small teams enter businesses and talk with owners and employees, distributing resources including New Sanctuary’s Beyond Know Your Rights pamphlets and Protect Your Workplace manuals, enlisting them to join local training sessions, where they can learn in-depth information on how to protect the community from ICE.

If you are interested in organizing SanctuaryHood efforts in your New York City neighborhood, reach out to us at info[at]newsanctuarynsc.org.

Photos taken on Friday, March 7, 2025.