Terrible Things Are Happening Outside: Building Resiliency and Empowering People in Broken Immigration Systems

A presentation at CSWE 2026 Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA in October 2026 by Jacob Campbell, Ruby Aguilar, Jessica Vega, and Alicia Gomez, and is tagged with Heritage University, Conference

Title slide: silhouettes of three people standing on a dark road lit by police lights, beside the title 'Terrible Things Are Happening Outside: Building Resiliency and Empowering People in Broken Immigration Systems' and presenters Dr. Jacob Campbell, Ruby Aguilar, Jessica Vega, and Alicia Gomez of Heritage University Social Work Department.

Land Acknowledgements slide with a photo of pine trees and red earth, acknowledging the Yakama Nation homelands of Heritage University's Toppenish campus and the Muscogee (Creek) homelands of Atlanta, quoted from Elise Blasingame.

Opening Skit, The Impact of ICE: a group of men carrying bags walk down a dirt road. A trigger warning says the presentation covers immigration enforcement, family separation, and systemic injustice; please practice self-care. Presenter Jessica Vega.

Cover of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl beside her January 13, 1943 entry: 'Terrible things are happening outside... Families are torn apart... Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared' (p. 67).

The Why: a family walks along a road at dusk carrying bags. Three points: scale of enforcement, the ripple effect including two million Washingtonians affected by Medicaid changes, and from macro to micro. Presenter Jessica Vega.

Impact of ICE on Communities. Through detention: detention is big business, capacity is surging, and deaths are possibly preventable. Outside detention: a chilling effect on employment, harm to U.S.-citizen children, and reckless use of force. Presenter Dr. Jacob Campbell.

How Is Heritage University Responding? Faculty/Staff Guidance: do not impede officers, protect information under FERPA, respond only to judicial warrants, with support for detained individuals, students, and employees. Photo of the Heritage campus. Presenter Alicia Gomez.

How Is Heritage University Responding? Clinicals/Practicum Placement Response, seven steps: alert your supervisor, protect information, know your rights, judicial versus administrative warrants, stay calm, and contact Student Affairs. Photo of the campus entrance. Presenter Alicia Gomez.

Community Impact, Fear and Uncertainty: fear spread through immigrant communities, families felt unsafe leaving home, rumors intensified anxiety, and fear reached mixed-status families and citizens. Background of barbed wire against water. Presenter Ruby Aguilar.

Community Response to Fear: decreased work attendance, fewer grocery trips, children kept home from school, missed medical appointments, less community participation, and more isolation. Photo of people gathered and clapping in a meeting room. Presenter Ruby Aguilar.

Community Response title slide beside a photo of people at a rally holding signs reading 'Know Your Rights', 'Families Belong Together', and 'Protect Our Communities'. Presenter Ruby Aguilar.

Mentimeter prompt: 'As social workers, what are we refusing to ignore?' with an instruction to scan the QR code to respond, and a photo of women sitting with heads bowed. Presenter Ruby Aguilar.

Interactive Stations slide listing three stations: Whistle Building Kits, Safety Planning, and Safely Filming ICE.

Guidelines for Bystanders & Observers: stay a safe distance, say calmly you are stepping back but have the right to record, passcode-protect your phone, and don't go live. Artwork of a hand filming with a phone beside a raised hand and 'Don't Shoot', by Yesenia N. Hunter.

Whistle Kit laid out on a wooden table: a plastic kit holder, a red know-your-rights card, a zine titled 'Form a Crowd, Stay Loud, Protect Each Other', and a green whistle to blow to notify others ICE is around.

Thank You slide with a photo of ICE agents in tactical vests in a parking garage and the question 'How will you move forward with this information?'

References slide listing the sources cited, including the ACLU, American Immigration Council, Blasingame, Burkhardt, Cox and East, Eisen, Frank, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, and the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, beside a photo of people carrying bags on a dirt road.

Dr. Jacob Campbell

18 slides

Description

Immigration enforcement is reshaping the communities social workers serve: detention has become an expanding industry, enforcement reaches schools, courts, and workplaces, and fear keeps families from work, school, medical care, and social services. This 60-minute interactive workshop from Heritage University’s Social Work Department opens with a short skit and a brief overview of the impact of ICE on communities, then describes how one Hispanic-Serving, rural university has responded with guidance for faculty, staff, and students in practicum placements. Participants then rotate through three hands-on stations, assembling a community whistle kit, practicing how to safely witness and document an ICE encounter, and building a personal or community safety plan, and leave with tools and materials they can adapt for their own practice settings.

This presentation is a conference session for the 2026 CSWE Annual Conference in Atlanta Georgia. It was developed and presented by the following:

Jacob Campbell, Ph.D. LICSW (HU Associate Professor, Associate Social Work Director)
Ruby Aguilar, LICSW (HU Associate Professor, Social Work Chair, BSW Director)
Jessica Vega, MSW (HU Assistant Professor, Practicum Director)
Alicia Gomez, MSW (HU Assistant Professor)