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Zoya Choudhry of La Colectiva communicates with family members while they remain in their vehicle as volunteers representing the organization work under a canopy adjacent to the Dallas ICE Field Office to assist immigrants getting to their appointments, offer translation services, prayer, food and prepare care packages for children. Photos were taken at 8235 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
Steve Hamm\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Zoya Choudhry doesn\u2019t sit still. The 30-year-old activist spends her summer days dashing around in an orange vest emblazoned with a butterfly on the front and back \u2014 the symbol of migrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Choudhry volunteers with La Colectiva North Texas, a grassroots group that aids people who have appointments at Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Dallas field office<\/a>. They tackle logistical challenges, but also provide an emotional and spiritual anchor for people on one of the most difficult days of their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n La Colectiva may not be able to stop someone from being deported, Choudhry said. But the volunteers can help detainees\u2019 relatives pay rent and make sure their car doesn\u2019t get towed. Sometimes, even just a bottle of water can make a difference.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not charity, it\u2019s empathy,\u201d Choudhry said. \u201cYou\u2019re my neighbor and I care about you.\u201d<\/p>\n La Colectiva \u2014 which means \u201cthe collective\u201d \u2014 sets up shop at 5:30 a.m., Mondays through Fridays, with a later start on Saturdays. Volunteers offer snacks, activity kits for children and what people want most \u2014 information.<\/p>\n Volunteer Linda Stack-Nelson, center top background, directs a family into a parking lot where other volunteers representing La Colectiva work under a canopy adjacent to the Dallas ICE Field Office to assist immigrants getting to their appointments, offer translation services, prayer, food and prepare care packages for children. Photos were taken at 8235 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n Steve Hamm\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n They perch in a tent near the entrance to the Dallas field office, a building off N. Stemmons Freeway that\u2019s a work space for ICE employees, a place for immigrants to complete their regular check-ins, and a location to process detainees who have just been arrested or are being transferred. Some people coming for check-ins are detained there.<\/p>\n \u201cICE remains committed to ensuring that individuals in custody are treated humanely and that family members and other members of the public are provided appropriate, general information about available processes,\u201d said Sarah Loicano, a spokesperson for ICE\u2019s Dallas field office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Loicano said when a person is taken into ICE custody, they are generally given the chance to make a phone call. She said ICE personnel also provide information about the detention process, including how relatives may locate an individual through ICE\u2019s online system.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf an individual is accompanied by family members or others at the field office, officers may provide general information about the detention process at that time,\u201d Loicano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 8:57 a.m. on a recent Friday, Choudhry stopped one woman wearing loose brown pants and a clean white top on her way into her appointment. Choudhry handed her a Department of Homeland Security privacy waiver to write identifying details such as her full name and alien registration number. The waiver allows third parties, such as family members or La Colectiva volunteers, to access information about a detainee.<\/p>\n Choudhry encouraged her to give the waiver to a loved one in case ICE detained her. Without that information, officials may not be able to provide information about her.<\/p>\n \u201cUp until this point, you\u2019ve been robbed of your agency, you\u2019ve been robbed of your choice,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what I can do is help them.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The volunteers try to identify patterns in how people are detained, but it\u2019s difficult, she said. It\u2019s not as hard as preparing people for the possibility that they or their loved ones might not walk out after they go for their appointment, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like death,\u201d Choudhry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A New York Times<\/a> analysis found the Dallas field office recorded the second-highest number of immigration arrests \u2014 an average of 85 per day \u2014 after Miami among ICE field offices nationwide from January 2025 through early March 2026. The Dallas ICE field office covers North Texas and Oklahoma.<\/p>\n A Dallas Morning News<\/a> analysis found that in 2025, the majority of people arrested by ICE officers in the Dallas area did not have criminal convictions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: As ICE flights pass through Love Field, Dallas says it has no authority over operations<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rain, snow and shine, the tent is staffed<\/p>\n Around 75 volunteers are involved in three-hour shifts to staff the tent. Many of the volunteers are women, and are known to some as \u201cthe ladies of the tent.\u201d<\/p>\n The tent is set up in an abandoned driveway near the pedestrian entrance to the field office. Security has increased at the office after a sniper shot three people<\/a> detained by ICE, two fatally<\/a>, last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Signs help direct families as volunteers representing La Colectiva work under a canopy adjacent to the Dallas ICE Field Office to assist immigrants getting to their appointments, offer translation services, prayer, food and prepare care packages for children. Photos were taken at 8235 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n Steve Hamm\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Volunteers on Friday set up netting around the tent\u2019s poles to block the sun and placed battery powered fans to blow into it. But the volunteers were rarely in the tent. The nine who rotated through spent a great deal of time flagging approaching cars, telling the drivers in Spanish that the field office\u2019s parking lot is now for staff personnel only. Yard signs put up by La Colectiva in the sidewalk median directed drivers to an abandoned lot nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Loicano said the growing number of employees at the office has created a need for more staff parking. She said signs at the field office\u2019s lot say overnight vehicles will be towed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two sisters aged 21 and 28 approached the tent around 11 a.m., and Choudhry directed them to sit in lawn chairs in the shade as she crouched to speak with them. The sisters said they dropped off their mother for her appointment around 6 a.m. and she was detained two hours later.\u00a0<\/p>\n Choudhry explained how to use ICE\u2019s online locator<\/a> to track where their mother was being held. Some migrants are moved around the state or country before they are deported. The sisters sat very still as they took in the information, interrupting only to ask the occasional question.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the time the sisters left, it was 95 degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: Bulldozers clearing land in Texas\u2019 Big Bend National Park for roads, border barriers<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Big and small support<\/p>\n Zoya Choudhry of La Colectiva waves to a family as they exited the parking lot after stopping to thank her for assisting them following their appointment next door at the Dallas ICE Field Office, 8235 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. Volunteers representing La Colectiva worked under a canopy adjacent to the Dallas ICE Field Office to assist immigrants getting to their appointments, offer translation services, prayer, food and prepare care packages for children. Photos were taken at 8235 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n Steve Hamm\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n La Colectiva is one of many grassroots organizations<\/a> that popped up across the country in the wake of increased immigration enforcement. While some groups like El Refugio<\/a> in Georgia give families of detainees a place to stay outside of detention centers, La Colectiva focuses on helping people in the moments before and after their appointments with ICE.<\/p>\n Sandra Avalos, 37, started the effort in October after seeing a gap of assistance for the people who don\u2019t know how the process works.<\/p>\n Occasionally, La Colectiva has helped cover a month’s rent, especially after a family\u2019s breadwinner is detained or deported. The group has helped fund self-deportation flights for those seeking to join their relatives, organizers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s disheartening at times, Avalos said, to hear children defend their parents, saying their parents are hard working and a good mom or dad. But there are moments that uplift her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that happens a lot is they give us a hug,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems so simple, but someone says \u2018This makes a difference. Just connection and to see that you value my humanity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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