Come organize with the Corpus Christi Immigration Coalition

Since we began organizing about seven months ago, as the Corpus Christi Immigration Coalition, our group has gone through several changes.

Our commitment, however, remains focused on being advocates and activists who organize around immigrant-related policies on a local and state level; do outreach to the local immigrant community to raise awareness of the legal resources available, and bring information to the wider community on the aspects of the immigration system we think are broken and on how we can organize locally to try and fix them.

Though we are a young group, we have organized, participated in, or supported numerous events and taken on several challenges that forced us to reassess our tactics moving forward.

On the evening of February 21, just as our group was getting ready for its weekly meeting, word began to spread that a raid had just occurred in Refugio. For many, it was the realization of their worst fears. Since President Trump took office, rumors of raids have been rampant in our community and throughout the country.

We are determined to work with and serve our neighbors. We have begun reaching out to such organizations as LaUnidad11 in Houston to learn more about community protection networks and Know Your Rights campaigns. Over two hundred people attended our first training on February 16. We have more planned, and we are developing a program to help people prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Our efforts in demanding comprehensive immigration reform brought us early on to organize against Senate Bill 4, the state’s “show me your papers” bill that allows law enforcement officials to act as immigration agents – creating a rift between police and the communities they serve while opening the door to legalized racial profiling.

We have invited local law enforcement agents to our meetings to better understand how immigration enforcement has taken a toll on the already-limited resources of our city and county.

We sent two representatives to testify before the state legislature against the bill. Finally, we met with our state representatives, Abel Herrero and Todd Hunter. We even invited U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold to one of our meetings during the congressional recess. He declined.

We later joined the Caravan Against Fear, an activist group traveling along the border, for a lobby visit and rally outside Farenthold’s office.

When we learned Rep. Hunter voted along party lines for SB-4, we began mobilizing a series of weekly protests outside one of his offices. The actions garnered media attention and helped spread awareness of his vote and made clear that we intend to hold our elected officials accountable. Our focus has now shifted to mobilizing support to get our city and county to join others around the state in opposing SB-4.

We understand that it is going to take a movement to make immigration reform a reality, and so the coalition is working hard to build allies in the community. We are constantly looking for new ideas. Everybody is welcome to our meetings. Come join us in this important work.

You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/ccimmigrationcoalition, or e-mail us at ccimmigrationcoalition@gmail.com.