Multiple – Last week, immigrant youth, allies, and volunteers from United We Dream and partner organizations hosted actions in Arizona, Texas, California, Oklahoma, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Florida. Young people led actions to demand the Biden administration and local elected officials enact bold, pro-immigrant policies that invest in their communities by funding access to health care, equitable housing, education, permanent protections for undocumented folks, and more.
All credit to United We Dream.
The week of action kicked off on May 18th in Houston, Texas with youth from United We Dream, Woori Juntos, Texas Organizing Project, Workers Defense Project, and Workers Defense Action Fund rallying outside the Houston Joint Processing Center demanding an end to all forms of collaborations between Harris County and ICE.
The next day, volunteer young people rallied in the Plaza De Los Lagartos in El Paso, Texas to reimagine safety in border communities by demanding elected officials prioritize their communities and their safety local collaborations with ICE, cutting ICE and CBPs budget, and demanding an end to Title 42.. That same day, young people hosted a peer-to-peer texting event demanding that President Biden cut ICE and CBP’s budget.
On May 20th, young people took action to reimagine safety by demanding funding for vital resources that help, not hurt, their communities in places like Phoenix, Arizona where young people gathered outside the Arizona ICE Field Office; Corona, California where immigrant youth took action in front of Corona City Hall; and Tulsa, Oklahoma where power builders had their voices heard in the Center of the Universe. That same day, the Never Again Action hosted a phonebank calling for an end to 287(g) ICE and local police collaborations.
On Saturday, in New Haven, Connecticut, C4D met to celebrate their work and this legislative season while looking ahead to what comes next. In Raleigh, North Carolina youth were outside the Capitol Building hosting a No Cages, No Walls, Defund Deportation Machine action.
Ending the week of action on May 23rd, United We Dream hosted the digital panel, Reimagine Florida: Young People Leading the Way, uplifting the voices of immigrant youth in Florida and the solutions they envision for issues affecting the safety of their communities. Also on Monday, United We Dream hosted a Phone Zap demanding ICE to #FREEJorge, a former DACA recipient who has survived gender-based violence and abuse while in detention and should be released to be able to access community and medical support immediately.
