Cleveland Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor, faith, and community organizations working together to promote workers' rights in the Cleveland area through collective action. We have been asked why, as a workers' rights organization, we do immigration work. The answer is that undocumented workers are the most exploited workers in this country. Many are victims of human trafficking and wage theft, having bosses who threaten to call ICE ERO if they try to take steps to recoup their lost wages. We will continue our immigration work to protect this most vulnerable community. 

We started Immigration Court Monitoring in 2018. We organized our first Immigration Court Monitoring Project at the Cleveland Immigration Court (the only Immigration Court in Ohio). We initially planned to be in the Court for three months to collect data for a report on our outcomes. Once we started, we realized this needed to be extended beyond our initial timeframe. Our allied immigration attorneys told us that our very presence in the Court was making a difference. We also realized that our volunteers would often learn about changes in the system or other developments that we would not have known about unless we were in the courtrooms. That was when we decided to continue and did so until COVID closed everything in 2020. 

Before COVID, we identified an issue affecting detainees being held in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown. This was before COVID; face masks were uncommon, but our monitors noticed that every detainee was wearing one, prompting us to investigate. We found that NEOCC had a mumps outbreak, only in the area for detained immigrants. We were able to advocate with the Mahoning County Health Department to successfully eradicate the outbreak. 

We tried to restart in 2023, but most hearings were still held via WebEx (the Court's version of Zoom), and the Cleveland Court had a policy prohibiting our monitors from attending virtual hearings. Judges were working from home, conducting their hearings via WebEx, but in early 2025 the Cleveland Court began requiring judges to return to in-person hearings. We were able to resume in August 2025. Now our volunteers are in the Court every day, Monday through Thursday. Fridays are catch-up days, making the dockets very sporadic, but we schedule a volunteer if there is a request for us to monitor a case. 

We provide our volunteers with our mandatory training, scheduling, and ongoing support. We give our volunteers all the tools needed for a successful experience in the Immigration Court: observation sheets, written materials about the Court, ongoing technical assistance, and a point of contact to call or text if they have any issues or concerns during their time in the Court. We also hold monthly Zoom meetings for all our volunteers to share and discuss their experiences in Court.