Immigrant activists and legal experts are preparing to fight the mass deportations planned under the next Trump administration.
Over the last few days, Trump has tapped figures like former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan and former advisor Stephen Miller to lead deportation efforts come January.
United We Dream Executive Director Greisa Martinez Rosas told reporters on a press call Wednesday that those plans were meant to sow fear in her community.
“Twenty, 30 years ago, that strategy may have worked, but I join this call today as an undocumented, unafraid, queer and unashamed woman who can tell you with certainty — I will not be driven back into the shadows,” she said.
Martinez said DACA recipients like her and other immigrant communities had already survived one Trump presidency by building up resources to protect themselves, and they would do it again.
She said in Arizona, that fight is further complicated by the passing of Proposition 314, which she said was an attempt to deputize local police as immigration officers.
The measure has been compared to Arizona's SB1070 and gives local and state police the ability to carry out immigration-related arrests. Voters passed it by a roughly 60-30 margin last week, but some of its core provisions are on hold for now as litigation moves forward against SB4, a similar law in Texas.
Karime Rodriguez — empowerment services manager with Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA — said despite Trump’s win, some gains were made for progressives.
“Many of our voters stood firm against Trump’s mass deportation again, a reminder that we can and will resist efforts to tear our families and communities apart,” she said. “LUCHA’s work led to important victories right here in Arizona, with over 630,000 doors knocked on and conversations rooted in hope. We secured gains in the state legislature and U.S. Senate, and as voters, we are still being counted.”
She said LUCHA and other groups would fight deportations through community mobilization, allies in the state legislature and legal action when possible. The groups called on local leaders to use tools they had to resist deportations in their states and cities.