When we organize we win

Through direct action and civil disobedience, many deportations were delayed and stopped by physically stopping buses from leaving ICE headquarters. Behind the scenes, members of congress were lobbied by the community, giving people in proceedings more time to fight their cases and reunite with their families.

Despite winning DACA, Arizona refused to honor the new status and give rights to Undocumented students, including driver’s licenses and in-state tuition. Undocumented students continued to organize and through a series of lawsuits, in-state tuition was won for DACAmented people.

With wages stagnating for years across the countries and our families over-represented in minimum wage service industry work, leaders pushed for higher wages to lift the quality of living of our families.

Leaders realized that immigration was not the only issue affecting our community. Another barrier to our community’s success was being able to provide for their families. The Fight for $15 demanded a higher minimum wage for all workers, and Prop 206 passed, giving Arizona workers paid sick leave and a higher, more livable minimum wage.

On election day in 2016, volunteers knocked doors from early in the morning into the late afternoon. The evening of the election, the same volunteers watched and waited as election results rolled in with music, food, and art.

After 24 years of raids, breaking up communities, and hurting families, Joe Arpaio was voted out office. Once the results were announced, the community marched to the Sheriff’s office and placed an eviction notice on Arpaio’s doorstep.

Raquel Terán, stalwart advocate for immigrant rights, is sworn in by former State Senator and long-time activist Alfredo Guttierrez, surrounded by the future leaders of Arizona. This moment represents the legacy of organizing in Arizona and the future of our movement.

Carlos Garcia from Puente Human Rights Movement and newly inaugurated to the Phoenix City Council, addresses a crowd of supporters, quipping that he never expected to be speaking as an elected official. Carlos is one of many members of the movement community that took the leap into elected leadership and worked to represent the community at the next level.

Betty Guardado, hotel worker and member of Unite Here and Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy, is sworn into the Phoenix City Council by Raquel Terán, showing two more examples of movement leaders trading their megaphones of activism to microphones of elected leadership.

In February of 2020, Poder in Action and the newly elected city council members succeeded in implementing the most powerful civilian oversight board over police in the country. With police violence disproportionately affecting Black and Latinx community members, and as the largest enforcers of SB1070, it was vital that civilians had the ability to hold their police department accountable. Over 30 years of this work came down to a 5-4 vote in favor of the tough model of oversight over Phoenix Police.

SB1070 was not the first anti-immigrant law and it wasn’t the last. The most recent attempt in 2020 was a feeble attempt to rally the conservative base during a Presidential election year. But through concentrated community efforts against xenophobic laws, it was the last of it’s kind to pass through the legislature.