First day in Lumpkin by Florencia Cornu

As we are getting ready to have some hours of sleep, I am sitting here, trying to put together the many emotions and feelings I have after our first day.

We started this morning at SIFI's office, where the staff gave us a warm reception and trained us on the basics of the work we are going to be doing this week.

Some of us got to watch an asylum hearing while others had the opportunity to interview with some of the people to whom SIFI is providing assistance.

Entering to a detention center is always a challenging experience: you have to go through a prison-like security protocol, and while you wait anxiously to interview with the client, you can only imagine their own anxiety and expectations about your visit. You know that you will be only able to offer limited comfort, sometimes only consisting in having the time and the disposition to hear their story.

It is a humbling experience that makes you admire even more the work people that are living and working here do every day. There are around 1900 detainees in the Stewart Detention Center and the SIFI's staff and attorneys know they will only to be able to help a very small percentage of them. However, they still come here every day to do their part and do at least all the good they can, to make the system a little bit less unfair.

Later, we had the chance to talk with Marty Rosenbluth, the only private immigration attorney who works in Lumpkin. While he told us about his daily work, our ears and our minds were eager to hear more and our souls received the fresh breeze of an inspiring passion.

“ There are men who fight one day and are good. There are men who fight one year and are better. There are some who fight many years and they are better still. But there are some that fight their whole lives, these are the ones that are indespensable."

Bertold Brecht