Actions Inspire in the Immigrant Rights Movement

I read this Los Angeles Times piece about a bold anti-deportation protest by young immigrant rights activists and couldn’t help but deeply admire their courage and give greater consideration to their message.  Three highly educated young people, brought to and raised in the United States without papers, flew back to Mexico and attempted to cross the border back to their American home.  They were detained, along with six other former Mexican emigres who joined them, at the Nogales border facility and sent to a holding center in Florence, A.Z.  Luis Leon, a compatriot of the trio, said “they are insane, but my respect is with them.  Nobody throws away 20 years of their lives for someone else.”  These young people did just that though – Lizbeth Mateo is set to begin law school at Santa Clara, Marco Saavedra is a Kenyon College grad and Lulu Martinez is a student at University of Illinois – to highlight the injustice they see in the U.S. immigration system.

They join a growing number of immigrant youth activist who have put their liberty on the line for their communities, risking banishment and exile to draw attention to their cause.  Activists like 27 year-old Claudia Munoz, who recently infiltrated a correctional facility in Michigan to document the stories of undocumented immigrant women thrown in with the general population.  Or Mohammad Abdollahi, a 24 year-old undocumented Iranian immigrant who joined two others in an occupation of Senator John McCain’s office hoping to pressure him to co-sponsor the DREAM Act.  Or organizer Carlos Garcia, who led four undocumented immigrants to reveal their status and protest outside a legal hearing for notorious anti-Latino Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

This is the type of political courage and determination that allows a small group of people to change the minds of millions.  There are a lot of policy issues involved here – citizenship by birth is in the Constitution, the U.S. needs better control of its borders etc… – but it’s viscerally and clearly wrong that these undocumented Americans, who are very much American, are constantly threatened with exile and separation from their family.  The bravery amongst these young people, standing up for their families and older members in their community, commands respect and demands that Americans consider what would drive them to such extremes.  I’m something of a moderate on immigration, but these are the types of action that will pull me and millions like me towards the position of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, Dream Activist, Puente Arizona and others fighting for immigrant rights.