There's been a flurry of news lately about immigration and people without legal status. But that hasn't stopped organizers from doing their work.
For this month’s Group Chat, we hear from two young Latinas from Comité Sin Fronteras who are committed to immigration reform. Here's Fernanda Jiménez and Deisy España.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Fernanda Jiménez: We joke about how Deisy is for the people. And as much as it's a joke, we know it's not a joke. If ICE is on 13th and Lapham, and Deisy hears about it, Deisy is there. She'll say, ‘Bet. I'm going.’ And she does. So my question to you is, why is it and how and where does the bravery come from for you to be so committed and devoted to the work that you do?
Deisy España: My parents are from Mexico, and my dad's still not documented. My mom became a permanent resident a little over a year and a half ago. But growing up, I constantly heard my parents talk about, ‘Don't open the door to anybody, even if they’re your tia or your sister,’ like don’t open the door.
And I'm like, ‘Damn, I got to keep my sister outside.’ But in reality, it was because of fear, right? Like, specifically, there's this one time when we were kids, we were coming back from Chicago, and the sheriff stopped my dad. All of a sudden I see my mom start praying. And she says, out loud, that she hopes that they give them the most expensive ticket ever. But not that she sees an ICE car or vehicle. And to me, I was like, what the heck? Something is not right.
And so when you ask about where does that bravery come from? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a bit nerve wracking too, you know, I'll say, like I'm there, right? And I'm nervous, but I still go because nothing that I'll ever do will compare to the struggle and fear and experiences that the immigrant community faces. I tell people all the time when they're afraid to organize, who's going to do it if you don't?
Jiménez: Nothing has been given to you. We think about all of the different policies that are pro-immigrant, and people are grateful for them and they really think like, ‘Oh, the government gave it to us.’ Or ‘Obama gave this to us’ and it's not really the case that just because they were in office they gave it to you. It was always fought by people so that that policy would have been implemented.
We talked about DACA being that way. Many DACA recipients think that Obama passed that executive order because he wanted to. I'm not saying he didn't, but it took a lot of work for him to agree on passing that as an executive order. And it was all by people around our age who fought for the DREAM Act. That didn't go through but then DACA was able to happen and now I have DACA and I'm able to work legally and have some protection but it's all by us. And honestly that’s how I think immigration reform is gonna happen.
España: I don't think I've asked you this but you're a DACA recipient so you are protected to an extent. But you essentially are undocumented and you're still founded Comité. You say yes putting your picture out there. You really don't care. Like, I don't care, well, homegirl, you're like undocumented. My question is how you feel as somebody who's undocumented, but on top of that, how you feel as somebody who is undocumented, who is at the forefront of this movement, trying to get other undocumented folks to be involved when there's just a lot of fear around everything?
Jiménez: To me, I've always been anxious and afraid. I'm afraid for myself, obviously having the worst case scenario. I'm afraid for my parents, who are a lot more vulnerable than me. I'm afraid for the people who are a lot more vulnerable than my parents. And even if I don't know them, they're my community. And I do fear the worst case scenario. But I also think that living in fear just makes your life completely worse. And I think only being in community keeps you so safe.
I've told this to many people who are undocumented, are DACA recipients who have said like, I don't want to put myself out there and say, ‘I'm undocumented’ because they know I'm a target. And I've told them, you're a target either way. If you're a recipient, your information has been given to the government already. So you're already seen as undocumented. And if DACA is taken away, you're undocumented now. And when you don't have community and something were to happen to you, that's when it makes it difficult to protect you. And if you had community, then you're much harder to target.
And we've seen that from the teacher, Yessenia, who just got her extension. Thankfully, she got her extension and now is continuing with her T Visa. But the reason why she's protected is because she had community and she put herself out there saying, ‘I'm undocumented right now and I could potentially be detained and deported.’ And I think that's really what's kept me just going. I really think that the community and the people around me keep me going and make me feel that being afraid isn't going to get us anywhere or me anywhere. And now I feel like I'm not alone.
We're talking about fear and how we've been trying to get away from fear. We've been trying to be more hopeful and to organize our communities more so that we can get to the final solution and our goal, which is a pathway to citizenship. But also what happens after a pathway to citizenship because the solution is not just immigration reform. So I'm wondering how you envision the world in the immigrant rights movement in the future and beyond what we are seeing now.
España: Has anyone seen the Hunger Games? No, but I like to see it from the bottom up where it's like how do we first win at the county level and then at the city level and the state level, right? Essentially we take over the country. I'm just kidding, please do not come looking for me, FBI.
How many years have we been pushing for a pathway to citizenship? Even when we had the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House controlled by the Democrats, and nothing was passed. We're so close, one vote, obviously we'll keep organizing. Obviously we'll keep marching and protesting and calling our congress people. You know, you name it, that won't stop.
My thing has always been local government so my job now is to recruit people to run for office.
The time frame I'm not sure because like you said, when we think about the next four years, where is the political and economic state of the world going to be? Are we gonna lose people?
Right now, we're having an influx of people who are calling [Comité] or wanting to be involved. Our [social media] posts are getting an insane amount of shares so it's doing good right now. But we've seen it with the May Day marches, right? Since 2007 we've been fighting to reinstate driver's licenses and every single year we march. And every single year you see a decrease in people. And it's not because people don't want to march or don't wanna fight, people are tired. So how many years can go by before you start losing people?
Jiménez: I think what you were saying about people are tired, I agree. People are tired and that's why I believe that our generation needs investment in what leadership looks like and you said it perfectly, locally we need to get those people in office and that'll take time but education is so crucial now. I think we have the people in the room. It's just bringing out that education to them and really implementing it.
I think internationally, we see that it's not just a national issue, it's an international issue of immigration being such a stigma that people are not treated fairly. They're not treated like humans.
There's going to be a lot of work. People are tired and we need to give them a moment to be tired too. We can't just make them fight all the time because I get tired. I'm tired right now. It's OK o be tired and there's always going to be someone who is going to be working for you and with you. It's like, take your time, we'll hold it down for right now, but then you come in and let me take a break. That [teamwork] that's how we win.
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