Immigration Court Watch Program

To get involved please Jenny Dale at jdale@chicagosanctuary.org or 773-293-3680.

 

 

1.                  Location: The Immigration Detention Court is at 101 W. Congress Parkway. (The corner of Clark and Congress Parkway.)

 

2.                  Parking and Transportation: On Clark, directly past the court building, is a parking lot indicating it is for Immigration. You can also get there by taking the Blue line to LaSalle, the Red Line to Harrison, or the Brown Line/Pink Line to Library.

 

3.                  Walk back to the front door of the building on Congress Parkway and go through security.

 

4.                  Getting to the Court Room: Approach the desk to the left on the other side of security. Tell the guard that you are observing in the Detention Court of Judge Katsivalis in the basement.

 

5.                  Another guard with escort you down to the courtroom.

 

6.                  Court Proceedings Times: Proceedings start at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 pm. The morning session ends at 12noon, and the afternoon session ends at 4:00 pm. This may depend on the number of cases being heard. You can stay the whole session, or leave when you have to.

 

7.                  Identifying Yourself as Court Observer: If you are there when the door opens at the beginning of the session, introduce yourself to the clerk and tell her why you are there. If court is in process, enter the room and probably the clerk or the judge will ask your purpose and then you can introduce yourself and say you are observing. Please wear your Court Watch button to identify yourself.

 

8.                  Please note that you may be turned away from the court room because there is a private hearing in progress or because there are no proceedings during that time. The other Courtroom on the same corridor (closer to the elevators) can be attended instead. It has visiting judges but otherwise has the same kinds of Immigration hearings. If no Court is in session, please try again a different day.

 

9.                  Going to Court: If you are a first-time volunteer please contact Court Watch volunteer coordinator, Mary Naftzger at maryandbob.n@sbcglobal.net or call (773) 373-7805 to let her know when you will be going to court and if you would like to find an experienced volunteer to go with. Generally 2 people are more than enough at one session; the court room is small.

 

10.              Posting Observations: Please document your observations in the new format called: Guidelines for Court Watch Observations and send them to: Mary Naftzger, maryandbob.n@sbcglobal.net. She will post them on the Chicago Metropolitan Sanctuary Alliance website www.chicagosanctuary.org.  We will be sending a notice to current Court Watchers to encourage their reading of other Observations that are posted.    Please do not use people’s full name in the observation write-up.

 

11.              Questions: If you have any questions please contact one of the following:

 Mary Naftzger: Court Watch Volunteer Coordinator

maryandbob.n@sbcglobal.net or (773) 373-7805

 

 Jenny Dale: Chicago Metropolitan Sanctuary Alliance/Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition. jdale@chicagosanctuary.org or 773-293-3680 (office) 773-551-1057 (cell)

 

 Sisters Pat Murphy or JoAnn Persch: Sisters of Mercy/Sisters and Brothers of Immigrants. sjo@mercychicago.com or 773-779-6011 ex. 44 (office) 773-881-4274 (home)