Immigration has been a major issue in Arizona and across the country for decades. And undocumented young people have often been a driving force in that conversation. Rafael Martinez, assistant professor of Southwest Borderlands at ASU, looks at how this population has developed and evolved its activism over those years.
Martinez is an author of the new book "Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States," and joined The Show to talk about how Rafael identifies himself — as an undocu-scholar.
Full conversation
RAFAEL MARTINEZ: Yeah. So it's really the combination of my two identities, one growing up undocumented in the United States — so, lived experience of that perspective and then also going through graduate school. And now being a professor and educator is really coming to terms with the identity as a scholar and really bringing the work that I do at the service of community and centering that first.
MARK BRODIE: How do you find that your lived experience, your own childhood, impacts what you do now?
MARTINEZ: Yeah, well, I'll point to the title of the book again, “Illegalized,” because I wanted to talk about illegality as a framework, not just in the macro level, the big picture items that we often think about, which is the border, the borderlands, attention, deportation.
But I also wanted to talk about the micro level things, everyday actions. So, growing up, I'll give you a quick example. I didn't get my driver's license in California when all my friends were getting their driver's license, because we couldn't get a driver's license at that time. And so, that impacted my realities of where I went to school, how I moved around, how I made friends and everything. So I want to talk about illegality and the way in which it impacts undocumented immigrants on an everyday basis.
BRODIE: When did you find that undocumented people, especially younger people really started to recognize that they could have a social impact, a political impact?
MARTINEZ: Yes. Well, at first, the Dream Act got introduced in early 2001 and it went on three times to be introduced, never passing. It would have given a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth, but that introduced undocumented youth to the public sphere.
It grew in cultural capital and visibility for undocumented youth. And then, undocumented youth realized that they could work in the political system. But then, they also needed to push the system to do more because when the failure that happened with the Dream Act, they realized that things weren't going to come about until they actually put additional pressure, and that led to different forms of organizing.
BRODIE: What kinds of models, if any, this population of people look to, for, “OK, here's what we want to do and we know that we have the capital to make this happen, but how are we actually going to do it?” Like, were there other examples of groups of people who tried to do this sort of thing, that undocumented youth look to?
MARTINEZ: Yes, I'll point to the fact that most of these activists that I write about were trained by folks and leaders in the civil rights movement. And so, of course, if you remember in the 60s, 70s, there was a lot of civil disobedience in the country, but then they also had to push politicians to pass things that would actually make significant change.
And so, undocumented youth took a page from that history book and started to say, “we need to take our activism to sites and places like detention centers where undocumented communities are being criminalized and we need to change the narrative.”
BRODIE: How would you say that these efforts have evolved since, you know, the early 2000s?
MARTINEZ: Yeah, it's changed into the fact that, you know, I think we went to the period where we're building mass movements and national movements. And I think that undocumented youth that I write about, wanted to change those discourse to found or establish organizations more at the local and state level because they realized that federal policy was still happening, but very minimally. And where actually policy was happening was that the state level and local levels enforcement, of immigration, were happening at those levels.
And so the nationals still kept happening, but they needed to form organizations that weren't going to be national and require this massive funding and support to run. But, if those national organizations came together, it could be this conglomerate that was flexible and withstanding to be able to do small-scale actions that disrupt immigration systems.
BRODIE: Let me ask you about what you found about Arizona, because around, you know, like 2010 era, of course, SB 1070 was signed into law, former Maricopa county sheriff, Joe Arpaio was in office. And we hear about how a lot of sort of the political leaders of today, who are Latino, were sort of formed during that period of SB 1070, and, and Joe Arpaio. What did you find in terms of how people were trying to organize specifically in Arizona around those issues?
MARTINEZ: Yes. Well, you know, I look at two particular actions, one of them that happened in 2010, of undocumented youth that conducted a sit in, in the late John McCain's office in Tucson. And what that did is, again, it gave youth in the state of Arizona a visual that civil disobedience was possible, because the folks who conducted that sit-in, would be arrested but wouldn't be detained and deported. And so that cultural capital offered possibilities to undocumented you to realize, “hey, we could use our, our cultural capital and exchange that to be able to affect change in the state.”
And I think that build a critical consciousness and youth in the state to then, go on and build their own organizations and be able to be the foundation and base that we see in Arizona now, who is pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation away after SB 1070 happened. So I think that it was successful in, in, in breeding these new ideas for undocumented youth in the state and allies are like.
BRODIE: Are you finding that people who are coming up now, as activists, are they using the same kind of methods? Because obviously those people were either very, very young or maybe not even born when originally the Dream Act was introduced in the very early 2000s. Are you seeing a continued evolution here?
MARTINEZ: I would say so because since 2017 DACA has been challenged in the Supreme Court. And so we have a whole generation that hasn't benefited or been able to apply for deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA. And so that whole generation is growing, very disappointed, the solution that nothing has been done for them or their families.
And I think they're looking for ways of organizing and continuing civil disobedience, putting pressure on the political system. I'm hoping that this book offers guidelines and again, not that they're doing exactly what's in the book, but that offers ideas and creativity on how they could put pressure in the political system.
BRODIE: How do the people who are involved in this activism define success? I mean, you mentioned the Dream Act, which still, you know, 20-something years later is still just a dream.
MARTINEZ: Yeah, the Dream Act is still a dream and it's still being talked about and discussed. But in 2012, we did get a DACA, so that was directly a result of organizing. And I think, again, the wins maybe haven't happened at the federal level, but at the state level, we are definitely seeing more states become and pass pro immigrant legislation, such as driver's licenses in state tuitions, state aid and many other resources that can support their undocumented communities.
BRODIE: Where do you see this movement going in the near term?
MARTINEZ: Yes, I think unfortunately, as we continue to not have immigration relief, unfortunately, the movement has to continue to grow and evolve and change. And so, I think that's not going to stop, but I do think that undocumented youth have realized that we continue to put pressure on the political system, not just for one party or two parties, but multiple politicians that we need to advocate for immigration reform.
