“It’s just a lot of fear,” Samantha Heredia ’27 said of her upbringing in a family of mixed legal statuses.
Heredia remembered visiting immigration attorneys with her undocumented parents, only to be consistently turned away. At home, the family anxiously kept up with immigration news, uncertain about what new policies could be implemented.
Heredia’s firsthand experience with immigrant struggles led her to take SPANLANG/HUMRTS 108: “Advanced Spanish Service-Learning: Migration, Asylum and Human Rights at the Border.”
In the class, which is taught by Vivian Brates, a lecturer in the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages (DLCL), students are trained and work for a national detention and abuse hotline operated by the immigrant rights nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants. Through the hotline, students can provide callers with immigration resources and help file complaints about any abuse detained individuals may experience.
According to ICE statistics, over 39,000 immigrants are detained daily for reasons ranging from alleged visa violations to illegal entry. In 2023, the average duration of a detention period was 37.5 days.
Under the new Trump administration, these statistics are expected to increase. The president has already signed an executive order expanding detention infrastructure and reinstated a policy requiring migrants to remain in detention while awaiting trial. He has also implemented other measures in an effort to crack down on immigration violations.
Amanda Diaz, Freedom for Immigrants’’ organizing director, is responsible for training and supervising the Stanford volunteers. According to her, the volunteers are integral to the nonprofit’s work. In the second half of 2024, the hotline operated three days per week. With the help of Stanford students, the hotline expanded to five days a week, allowing them to support more immigrants in detention centers.
“It seems like people in this class really want to learn,” Diaz said. “I’ve had a great experience with them and they’ve done an exceptional job.”
Additionally, the students’ efforts documenting detainees’ stories of abuse has enabled Freedom for Immigrants, in collaboration with other immigration advocacy groups, to successfully push for reduced use of the Glades Detention Center in Florida, which had been accused of sexual and medical misconduct.
Many students volunteering with the hotline felt frustrated about not being able to provide more help. Heredia experienced this when she took her first call from a man who had been detained for over two years and was going to be deported the next day.
“I just felt so powerless,” Heredia said.
Brates said she reminds students that showing support is important, even to a limited extent.
“We can listen to them, affirm their experiences and treat them with kindness. That’s something we can do,” Brates said.
On the other hand, students can experience moments of joy when successful. Heredia said she once helped a woman who had been calling numerous legal offices but not receiving responses. Heredia offered to email the legal offices, something the woman was unable to do from the detention center.
“Just providing what I perceived as so little support was so transformational and gave her so much hope,” Heredia said.
Although Heredia has been engaged with immigration issues for some time, her experiences in the course have given her a fresh perspective. As someone who previously focused primarily on immigration from Latin America, Heredia was surprised to hear from so many callers immigrating from Africa or Asia.
“It’s made me realize that every struggle is connected,” Heredia said.
Many former students of the class have been inspired to get more involved with immigration issues. Some students — even those who have moved on to medical school or law school — have remained volunteers for Freedom for Immigrants, according to Diaz.
“I think it’s been a very, very valuable experience,” Heredia said. “This is the one class [where] I feel I’m making a difference.”