Our story

We are an organization that has invested in young people's power for over a decade, serving as a safe space and home for DREAMERs, one of the most impactful and historic movements in modern history. The DREAM Act was first introduced by Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch in 2001 (s. 1291), which detailed a path to permanent residency for young undocumented immigrants. It’s been over 15 years since the original proposal, and today’s reality not only has challenged us to the core but also required us to reflect deeply on our vision of immigration justice and who is left behind if we don’t build intergenerational, intersectional power. We are more clear than ever.

As we denounce the history of anti-immigrant sentiments that have severely impacted immigrants of color, we affirm that the current xenophobic climate is experienced by all communities of color in a variety of ways – this is not exclusively a Latino issue. African and API immigrant communities have been under attack for far too long; African and African American people have a long history of struggling for citizenship rights during slavery and after abolition. The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese people from migrating to the U.S. for over fifty years. Muslim immigrants are facing renewed Islamophobic initiatives similar to those seen after 9/11, exemplified by the recent Muslim ban. Immigration laws have been used to uphold structural racism and cis heteronormativity and have restricted formal channels of migration to people with limited financial resources. For far too long, race, class, and gender have been used to perpetuate the practices of exploitation through immigration laws, and we denounce that these conditions are all undeniably connected to the global imposition of the interests and will of corporate greed.

We have reflected, prepared, and built relationships because of the clarity this particular moment gives us, and we start here, at this moment in time, when our community is persecuted and surveilled, we choose to rise up like the Phoenix. With the fire in our hearts, we recommit to ourselves, one another, and our community with a mission and vision for liberation. 

We are guided by the visions of hope that many of us learned from our parents. We are most grateful for their relentless courage to search for opportunities and a better life; we thank them and honor their sacrifices as we move forward with their unapologetic desire to offer us a life of dignity and prosperity. We are fueled by a desire to offer our parents a safe and peaceful retirement in their advanced years and to care for them as they cared for us when we were too little to care for ourselves. And because of that, we asked ourselves, is our fight over by accessing immigration remedies? The answer is no. Immigration is part of a much deeper racial, economic, and gender battle that we won’t shy away from. In fact, we pledge to take our place in the long view and use all our lessons learned to build a women/millennial-led, community-accountable, intersectional Latinx-based organization ready to build power for gender, racial, and economic justice.

We are thankful to our elders in the movement, to all those who stood up and followed their call to grace and have inherited our stories, lessons, and resilience. We are grateful to stand on the shoulders of freedom fighters and generations of survivors who learned how to pave the way when there was none and who crafted the path with all the tools they had – often risking their own lives.

We invite you to join us; you are the only judge on when and how to show up when the time is right for you; send us a message; there are many ways to get involved. One thing we need to say is, silence won’t protect us. And while we know you are hurt and the weight on our shoulders feels great and unbearable, know that you are not alone and that our organization, our team, and leaders will continue to build power for gender, racial, and economic justice.