Undocumented activists who put themselves on the line deserve recognition. Reprinted from Aljazeera America
On Nov. 20, President Barack Obama took executive action on immigration, lifting the threat of deportation for millions of immigrants, including some members of my undocumented community. Over the last few weeks, I have been reading a lot about just whom to thank for Obama’s action.
I came to a realization that most of those who write or speak about immigration in the media are not activists or even immigrants, let alone undocumented ones. I am writing to tell the story I know, as an activist, an undocumented immigrant and a proud mother.
This country has been my home for the past 22 years — the last two decades in Seattle. When my daughter was born 17 years ago, I promised myself that she would not face the kind of racism and bigotry most immigrants have to endure. By the time she turned 3, we were already attending know-your-rights workshops, May Day marches, demonstrations against the first Iraq war and workshops on immigration. I wanted to learn about my rights, connect with other undocumented community members and begin building a coalition to demand that we be treated as human beings.
I first joined groups calling for immigration reform in early 2000s, but right after 9/11, I knew we would be scapegoated simply for being immigrants. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brought regional detention facilities to the Pacific Northwest. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center opened in the Tacoma tide flats in 2004. Lawyers and pro-immigrant groups advised me and other undocumented immigrant activists not to go near the jail. And we were told to never reveal our identities. So we stayed away from the facility and kept our identities hidden. But I began organizing against the facility without ever putting a foot nearby.
By 2006 the immigrant rights movement grew to attract millions of people, and we defeated the infamous bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner that called for strengthening of interior immigration enforcement, additional border security and the criminalization of churches and community groups that help undocumented immigrants. Similar immigration reform bills were introduced and met with protests in 2007 and 2009.
Negotiating away our future
During those years I learned how politicians hijacked our movement for reform. And more important, I learned how the big, well-funded pro-immigrant organizations such as the Center for Community Change were already negotiating away our future. My breaking point came in 2010, when Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed a conceptual framework for a bill that essentially called on immigrants to admit to being criminals in exchange for a green card. I realized that politicians did not champion our campaigns but must respond to them. We brought local advocates together and started calling for an alternative to the behind-the-scenes negotiations on our future. It was time to build a real bottom-up strategy instead of being led by pundits in Washington.
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Maru Mora Villalpando is a bilingual community organizer, consultant and political analyst with more than 10 years of experience working on immigrant rights and racial justice issues. She is the founder of Latino Advocacy Inc. This was originally printed in Al Jaazera America.
